Forget Everything That You've Known
by HellsingDMC
Summary: It's been a month since the storm happened that nearly destroyed Arcadia Bay; killing almost everybody instantly. And if you think that's worse; the dead have been re-animated and have started walking the streets among the ruins. Max runs into Mr. Jefferson, in the hopes of surviving and finding the rest of her crew during the chaos that has been unleashed. Max/Jefferson
1. The escape artists

Things have changed for the worst since that storm blew in from across the ocean about a month ago to this day. Not only did it wipe out almost everybody in this small town; but it managed to bring them back from the dead with a bloodthirsty motive. I don't even know how something like this could even happen, the storm destroyed houses, crushed buildings, and shattered everyone's hope at being rescued. But when the people who were crushed or buried alive began to break away from the rubble, and started attacking the living... That's when shit began to hit the fan.

I finish boarding up the windows around the ground level section in Mr. Jefferson's house, knowing that he's upstairs sealing off of the windows without any ease while rummaging through the cabinets he has up there for food as well. Moments before the people who were once dead began to start roaming around; he was driving down past the diner where Chloe's mom worked at - well, what was left of it anyways. I managed to escape my home when my parents emerged from the collapsed living room and tried to devour me whole, and during my escape he almost ran me over thinking I was one of them. I haven't run into anyone else since then, but I did notice Chloe in her pick-up truck driving out of this town when he picked me up on the side of the broken street. To be honest I don't even know if there's anywhere safe, I haven't even heard of the military even stepping into our small town. That, and I've watched enough zombie movies to know what happens next; so I don't want to get my hopes up if something as good as this infestation staying put in this town when I know fully well that it probably spread to the rest of the world.

I don't even know if there's anyone else alive in Arcadia Bay; let alone a stable building so we can scrounge around for food once we run out. Mark - he wanted me to call him by his first name ever since this place became a host for the undead, went over the scenario of what we would have to do once we've run out of food; either look around the remains of this town, or follow Chloe's movements and book it the fuck out of here in his car. Personally I want to leave, who knows, maybe the other places aren't screwed up as badly as ours. After all, it happened over a month ago and so far we haven't heard anything on the news; but the TV stations all cut out yesterday and haven't returned since so the station a few blocks from here finally failed.

We still have power, mind you it flickers every now and then and not to mention that it cuts out for more than a few minutes with each passing day. The power situation reminds me of a book I read back in the day; _The City of Ember_ I think it was called. It's funny how your mind works when everything around you is reversing into chaos extremely quick. I'm remembering events of pointless things that would have normally just escaped my mind from my childhood, like how my parents would grab the candles and blankets during power outages, or severe storms and we'd just crowd around in the basement and play board games until everything was okay; I wish that were the case so that way Mark and I could go do the same thing right now.

I hear his footsteps quietly descend towards the main floor which I'm on and he quickly dashes into the kitchen without even staring in my direction, turning off the lights along the way, just in case the undead notice the brightness illuminating through the cracks in our poor job of nailing wooden boards to the windows.

I'm not going to lie, ever since I've came back to Arcadia Bay and enrolled into Blackwell Academy I've the biggest crush on this guy since day one. I kid you not; day in and day out it was all just daydreams of _what ifs_ and occasionally the experimental dream scenarios here and there... And I'll be damned; I _still_feel the same way about him. Now, I can't honestly tell how he feels based on how he's been acting lately and to be quite honest if he did feel the same way or something similar he would have acted upon it considering there's nobody alive to stop him from doing so. Unless he's afraid that it would make it awkward since as far as we know; we're the last ones alive in this town. Either way, the more time I'm spending with him the harder it's becoming to repress these strange feelings of attraction towards him.

I carefully place another nail against the wooden board that's half way pinned across the window, shielding us from what awaits us outside these worn down doors. I hammer away quickly as it makes a loud noise in response, threatening to give away our location to those crazed _things_outside.

I had to completely rewire my brain after this, since there's no access to medical supplies as easily as there was before this happened I decided to cut down on the reverse time thing unless one of us almost gets eaten alive; other than that, I'm on my own for normal situations and there's nothing I can do about it. I've had a few close calls; almost being hospitalized before all of this happened and such, just from overusing my powers so I'm not taking any chances anymore.

Once again I hear his footsteps come out from behind me, he leans his body against the door frame that heads towards the kitchen and just watches me work at making sure his home is secure enough to keep us from becoming food. I'm amazed how his house didn't collapse from under the pressure the storm gave off; but to be fair he's on the furthest side of town, just an hour away from being out of state. He's not really close to the ocean so to speak, let alone Blackwell Academy so driving there took him at least an hour or more for sure I'm assuming.

"Max, there's something you _may_ want to see." His voice is hushed as it has been all month, in case any ears overhear the words in this now silent, empty town. My heart drops inside of my chest, I haven't dreaded those words in forever; I think the last time I did was before I moved back to Oregon. Carefully I turn around, facing him with my shy expression, while I hesitate to hold his eye contact in fear of babbling like an idiot, or worse; confessing my feelings in the expressions and body language I'd show.

"Is it good?" I dread the reply I'll receive, but the question has to be asked. Nobody likes hearing bad news; whether you're stuck in this type of scenario or not, bad news is bad news and everybody will take it possibly the same way when they receive it.

He goes silent for a long time, the candle flame from nearby reflects off of his lenses revealing a sorrowful expression in this semi dark lit house; not to mention his attractive features, and slim body also stand out to me as well. After trying to hold my gaze for several seconds he gives up to no avail, and quietly heads into the kitchen waiting for me to follow along behind him.

I have a feeling what he wants me to see has something to do with our food situation; we've been running low for the past week. I haven't even dared to set foot into that kitchen for the past couple days so I always made sure he did it for me. Childish I know, but I just hate facing the reality of when we _do_run out and we're either forced out of this house to look for more food, or to run away from this desecrated town in the hopes of finding a normal one to settle down in.

Eventually I conquer my fears of not only being alone with him in the same room for several minutes, but the fear of what's about to come out of his mouth; is still in the process. Slowly and quietly I begin to move one foot in front of the other towards the doorway where he disappeared into, carefully I peer my head over the side of the wall checking around the kitchen, it looks the same as it did before this mess; a clean counter, no dirty dishes in the sink, no dirt of the floor, just a seemingly neat kitchen. I honestly can't tell if we have food or not based on his expression and the fact that he has his face resting in his palm; standing in the middle of his kitchen floor while the window blinds are pulled down all of the way. I've never saw him act like this before, usually he's always putting on a brave face around here.

"Is... Is everything alright, Mark?" I approach him once more; my heart thumps wildly inside my chest every time I gaze at him, even if it's for a second. I really need to get that under control; and fast at this rate. He doesn't even make an effort to move, let alone gaze up at me like he'd usually do. Instead, he just glances at me from the corner of his eye with a dreadful expression.

A deep, long sigh escapes his lungs while he glances up at me with the same sorrow painted across his perfect face. Without any warning he suddenly begins to walk towards me, spreading his arms apart and wrapping me inside, almost as if he too, is terrified of what will happen next.

My heart explodes into a million pieces as I come in contact with his body; I can feel my face burning up against his body while his hand reaches towards the back of my head while he presses me against him, speaking calmly and as low as he possibly can:

"We need to leave; now."

Confused, I push away from him lightly, even though I don't want to pull away from him, I still manage to. He holds me tight in the same spot, almost as if he doesn't want me looking behind him towards the open window which he hasn't boarded up yet, but instead he just merely closed the blinds.

I don't understand why he's acting so strange about this, he was just fine a couple hours ago; he never left to go outside so he didn't get bitten. I guess all there's left to do is just ask what's going on. A part of me doesn't want to ruin this moment, it's been so far only available to me in my dreams at this point; but no, this is the _real_ thing, he's actually hugging me meaningfully as well, do I want to risk it?

"Can you tell me what's-" He doesn't even let me finish my sentence, instantly he grabs a hold of my face and lightly attaches his lips against mine without any other second thought about his actions; completely proving me wrong about him not feeling the same way, and showing me that he cares enough to push this a little bit farther.

My body completely bails on me, everything is spinning, my heart, my head, _everything_. I'm honestly unable to comprehend what he's doing, but liking the result none the less. The sweet taste of his lips intensifies while he bites my bottom lip a little bit, smirking while pushing me against the counter while his hands trace slowly down from my neck to my arms, pressing his pulsating body against mine roughly as if he's trying to take my mind off of the question I was trying to ask him.

I can't believe this is actually happening, it's almost as if time itself had stopped and I didn't have to lift a finger; my body is almost paralyzed with emotion while he continues to press his lips against mine; getting rougher and rougher each time.

Quickly for a brief second, I remembered what I was going to ask him, it clearly must have scared him enough to the point of trying to take my mind off of it in the first place, now all there's left to do is to figure out what exactly is the problem. Everything seems to be alright, unless he just wanted an excuse to get me alone since I have been kind of avoiding him lately due to my growing attraction towards him.

"I can't help myself, Max." The words barely escape from his lips as he continues his actions, moving his lips down towards the base of my neck in an attempt to pull me into his lustful trance.

His lips eventually reach mine once more, pushing with more force, as his fingers tremble under the tremendous pressure he's feeling, I can just tell he's just itching to get everything off of his mind in one go; based on how careless he's acting about the situation at hand.

"C-can I know what's wrong first?" I barely manage to make the words escape my lips after each passionate kiss he lays on me, my heart's a fluttering mess and my mind is beyond the point of no return. Eventually he pulls his face away, just inches from mine while moving his lips fairly slowly.

"They have the house surrounded; I don't think we're going to escape alive." His hand slowly grasps the cord to open the blind, carefully he opens it slowly while he also tries to reach my lips once more with his, but despite the fantasy side of me urging him on, I push him completely away and just stare at him with a disappointed expression while sitting on top of the counter with my back completely against the window.

I'm a bit hurt at the fact that he hasn't told me why he's been acting like this all of a sudden. I don't blame him; neither of us had said_one_word about how we feel considering the sexual tension has been building up between us for quite some time now. However, I am impressed with how careless he's been; I guess he's lucky that the feeling is mutual in this case.

"We need to leave then." I'm _really_ regretting the decision of pushing him off of me, considering my body is begging for more from him... But if that's how he really feels about us then we need to make the effort to continue on living, because then there's a chance we can actually continue exploring this side of us; as one, instead of a student and former teacher.

His lips twitch into a small smile, eventually the lust drains from his system and his eyes gaze out of the window towards the sea of reflecting eyes and corpses that are all broken and mangled from the sudden destruction a month ago, standing perfectly still outside; watching us with their eyes without making any movements or sound at all in the mid-morning daylight.

I find it a bit weird; zombie movies over exaggerated quite a bit, with the whole slowness and rotting quickly. I mean, you can tell who was dead for a longer period of time based on how much decay they have compared to the others; which makes them a bit slower and less likely to go after you. Lucky for us most of these people have already broken limbs and bones sticking out where they shouldn't be; so it's not hard outrunning them when they can barely walk as it is, I'm just worried about what's outside of this town to be honest.

Mr. Jefferson grabs the last remaining few cans of food and stuffs them inside a small bag that's sitting on top of the table, he then grabs the car keys from the top of the fridge and begins to head towards the door that leads into the sealed garage with both the keys and the bag in his hand.

"I have a full tank of gas, what's going to happen is once that garage door opens we're going to have to go as fast as we can, everything else we need is in the car; I thought ahead a couple days ago and stocked it with some things for the road." He urges me to come along while he slowly and quietly creaks open the garage door that's attached to his living room, making his way towards the car that he just turned on moments ago.

The mindless snarling emitting from the herd that surrounds the backyard of the house is almost unbearable, there's a _huge_ difference from listening to it on a show, than in person. And let me tell you, I'll take the shows any day after witnessing my hometown transform into a mobile, angry graveyard.

I can hear the humming of the engine from the garage room while my body just stays sitting on the counter, going over the events that could have happened right here. My eyes can't even turn around to gaze at the monstrosity that's behind me, for I already know that they will attempt to break through the window and come after us. Even though they're undead and have minds of their own; they aren't as stupid as you'd think. Not to mention after what could have happened just a few seconds ago between me and him... I really hope there are more moments like that between us in the future.

I feel a small smile spread across my face, just thinking about him gives me enough hope to push through this sudden epidemic. Carefully I reach behind me, feeling along the wall for the cord to pull the blinds down so that way at least I don't have to_look_ at their hideous faces when I turn around. The second I pull the blinds down I quickly jump off of the counter, still a bit light headed from where Mark was trying to go with that, '_sudden burst of energy'_ he just had.

They still haven't made a noise outside, which concerns me a bit; I don't even think they moved at all, really. Mr. Jefferson quickly beckons me to come over with a hushed expression, while he disappears inside the garage and opening the car door. If anything, he must really want to try to escape this as well if he's actually going to try, instead of doing what he always wanted to do_'apparently'_ before we got torn apart limb from limb in the middle of his kitchen.

So this is it, I guess we're moving out of this town to see what happened to the rest of the world. I just hope I don't have to rewind anything that happens here. Personally I'm excited that we're moving along the road now, after being cooped up in here for over a month with nothing better to do; letting our minds run about with potentially false hope sewn in between the cracks of our broken sanity. For the hope of our survival, I really do want there to be a place where we can call home after leaving Arcadia Bay behind; for good.

Quickly I hop inside the passenger side, slamming the door shut and tightening my seat belt across my chest; I know exactly what's going to happen once he opens that remote door. Mr. Jefferson holds my shy gaze for a few seconds, causing my heart to flutter around in excitement and my mind to heat up under the pressure of my cheeks growing bright red.

"Are you ready?" He calmly asks with a hint of sarcasm strung around his voice that lingers in the silent air between us. After several days of him not being sarcastic anymore; it's really hard to get used to it, but at least he's trying.

"Ready as I'll ever be, please don't kill us instantly." I return the sarcasm, flashing him my shit-eating grin while he slyly smirks in return, grabbing a hold of the gear shift and putting the car in drive.

"I make no promises, Max." He clicks the button on the remote control door opener, rolling down the window and tossing the useless remote out onto the ground below us. He then rolls his window back up and grips the wheel tightly with both hands knowing damn well it's going to be a messy ride.

Slowly we wait for the main garage door to open; exposing us to however many of them is lurking outside beyond the house walls in a nice slow and steady pace. Besides; if anything goes wrong, all I have to do is reverse time and we'll be alright. Mind you we'd have to come up with another plan, but still; we'd both be alive and well for a few more moments to spend it with each other through this strange twist of events.


	2. A sight for sore eyes

The engine revs for a good few seconds, while the garage door slowly but surely opens, revealing the sea of reflecting eyes and the hungry moans emitting from them; while they try to reach out with their broken limbs to grab us. Of course a few of them enter the garage and surround the car, one in particular stands out to me the most; Victoria, no doubt about it, her messy short blonde hair is matted down with dried blood, her face is completely ripped apart leaving bits of skin hanging around her jaw, her outfit that she wore constantly is ripped to shreds and covered in dirt, and her arms are completely twisted around with bits of shattered bones sticking up through her flesh.

The imagery slightly gets to me, after all; I knew most of these people, or I saw them around when I was out and about. I was never alright with gore, I could stomach it but the images still stayed with me, even with horror movies. I guess I'll have to get used to it, if I want to survive that is.

Her cloudy eyes fixate on me just as if she was alive, she always had it out for me no matter how nice I tried to treat her. She tries to claw her way to me through the glass window that's protecting me from her, thank god for his giant metal barrier protecting us from them.

Mr. Jefferson's eyes glance at me for a second; he catches sight of Victoria's corpse and lets out a deep sigh, remembering the constant engagements she'd try to make with him in the past during class hours. He then returns his gaze to the mass of corpses in front of him realizing that he has bigger issues to deal with at hand; er, wheel.

"Ready?" He calmly asks me once more, while the corpses slowly begin to make their way around the car, grasping at the locked handles and furiously pounding their broken fingers against the windows. Streaks of blood are left behind from their desperate attempts to get inside, they lost every aspect of being a human being, and judging by their lack of reaction to the shattered bones, they can't feel pain either.

"Don't have a choice, do I?" I look up at him one last time before returning my gaze to Victoria's broken body. I can only imagine the rage she'd feel knowing that I'm alive with him and she isn't, maybe these people still have memories after all.

He laughs a tiny bit, knowing damn well that I'm right about not having a choice anymore. To be fair none of us do, really. It's all in fate's hands now, hopefully our karma streaks will catch up to us from the past; him and his teaching, and mine and my time travelling. I don't know what he did during after school, but surely it wasn't anything too bad, I hope.

His foot slams on the gas pedal; jolting the both of us forward while he speeds through the sea of corpses, tearing right though most of them and sending a massive amount of blood and flesh hitting against the car's windshield. His eyes widen with pure adrenaline, instead of fear which is slightly concerning to me. The force of the bodies being flung at him causes him to almost lose control as he turns sharply back on the empty road to avoid hitting the remains of his neighbor's house that's nearby. Amazingly the windshield didn't crack from the force of a couple bodies hitting it with full force, just a small stream of thick blood limiting our vision greatly.

"That could have gone worse." He regains control of the car rather quickly, keeping us balanced on the road as we begin to speed away from the sea of glowing eyes and hungry snarls. My heart pounds furiously inside my chest, I glance back behind us to notice the corpses are moving towards us at an unusually slow pace. We shouldn't have a problem outrunning them at this rate.

"You're telling me, I'm amazed we didn't fuck up." My heart slows down after the whole scare that we've just encountered, Mr. Jefferson grins like an idiot while keeping his eyes on the road ahead of us in case anymore corpses decide to jump out and attempt fate with us.

I swear it's like he daydreams about running people over with his car daily, he hasn't really been phased by any of the bloodshed yet and his eyes were so full of life; instead of being terrified as he plowed them all over. Some people can handle it naturally, but even during that I was feeling slightly queasy.

The sun gleams over the broken town behind us as we blaze through the streets trying to get to the backroad. Every second the car moves we can hear the thumping of something hitting the ground and diving over the small potholes against the broken streets as we head towards the exit of this town, Mr. Jefferson stays focused on the road in front of him; well aware of the thumping below us.

That could have gone to shit really fast, anything could have happened; the windows could have cracked from the force and pressure, the doors couldn't have been locked and then we'd have back seat drivers trying to eat us, not to mention whatever's under the car could have damaged the engine. All of these scenarios just sends a wave of paranoia towards me just thinking about them.

The houses begin to thin out the further we get away from the town, we're slowly entering the countryside and I think it's safe to say that the herd's also thinning out as well. Considering I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary yet, besides a few stragglers here and there.

"I think you hit something..." I point out sarcastically, peering over the ledge of the rolled up car window and noticing that his now silver car is coated with blood and entrails from our unfortunate victims.

"It'll come out from under the car with some time; I think." He continues driving down the abandoned road in silence, trying to forget the massive amount of corpses that were waiting for us just outside of his house.

All of that hard work trying to seal off that house too and by now it's probably overrun by those things. We were almost done too; we just had to board up the extra rooms that we weren't using that had windows upstairs so that way we were on ground level without anything to worry about. Oh well, at least we have a new adventure to embark on and hopefully we can find more survivors; not that I don't mind being alone with Mark, it's just, the more the merrier; I guess. That and I really have high hopes that it was Chloe I saw escaping a couple weeks ago, I just _know_ she's still out there alive.

My eyes drift outside of the bloody window, Mr. Jefferson continues to turn on the windshield wipers periodically, trying to remove the stain so he can at least see better as we speed along the familiar streets, passing a few more crippled corpses who gaze directly at us, not trying to make a move at all knowing that there's not a chance in Hell that they could catch up to us. Amazingly there's no abandoned cars on these streets as we make our way to the back road, probably because the storm didn't push everything back like it did downtown; there's all kinds of vehicles lodged inside of the debris of buildings, and strung up in trees from the high winds, not to mention most of them ended up in the lake. It looks much nicer out here away from downtown; that's for sure.

"Is that a good sign; you know, that there's nothing up here?" I ask him curiously, trying to break the nerve racking tension that's building up inside the car while he continues to drive with the thumping noise skidding across the road along the way in silence.

His eyes glaze over the road, turning the car onto the back road that we've been desperately looking for to get the fuck out of here. A simple sigh escapes his lungs while he glances at me for a quick second.

"I would assume; the only thing I am quite concerned about is the fact that there are still corpses wandering about out here." He flashes me a reassuring smile before he returns his remaining attention to the road ahead of us without any trouble from the thumping below.

I lean my head back against the car seat, still gazing out the blood splattered window at the broken town that we're leaving behind, some houses still stand with minimal damage, but there's enough lost bodies wandering around the front yards to make us double think on stopping in to find food or gas.

It never occurred to me up until now; how you never know what you have until it's gone, really. I'm so used to running water, getting up and having the house supplied with food constantly, and friends... Once you lose everything rather it's to an epidemic like this or just in general, you feel pretty lost. And I _still_have no idea where we are going to find weapons. There was none in his house; I've checked everywhere, unless he has something usable in his trunk that he accidentally left in there before the _accident_ happened.

I managed to regain control of my pounding heart after plowing through former people with the intention of escaping their circle unscratched, despite everything that has been happening for awhile now, at some point I'll be able to hide the resentment I feel for killing those things. I'm well aware that they aren't human anymore, but the mindset is still slightly hard to break.

After several minutes of being surrounded by nothing but a road that seems to lead to nowhere, and tall, leafy trees, Mr. Jefferson pulls the car over to the side of the road on the gravel. The birds chip through the air, while the sound of the dead silence is enough to make me feel like there's no such thing as a corpse plague walking around; it fills me with hope, and quite a lot of it to be honest.

"Alright, we should be approaching the next town soon, for now I think its safe enough for us to actually address the_issue_ under the car." He pulls the emergency brake on and opens his door cautiously, gazing around the empty wilderness before nodding his head a little in my direction, letting me know that it actually _is_safe enough to wander around.

I've never really been on too many road trips in my past time to be honest; the furthest we went was driving back here when we moved back a few months ago. It was only a ten hour drive and honestly it was quite boring. But I don't think a drive that involves outrunning undead corpses along with being stuck with your attractive teacher won't have any boring aspects in it; at all.

My feet touch the gravel and instantly I feel like we've escaped the madness that has taken our town by force, there's nothing out here; no houses, no people, _nothing_. It's quite calming, really. I smile brightly, taking a deep breath in of the fresh air that lingers around us while the wind rustles the tree's leaves a bit, carrying the sound of the birds along with it.

Mr. Jefferson moves towards the back of his trunk, popping it open and rummaging through the stuff he keeps in the back. He takes out a toolbox and places it on the ground below; carefully he closes the trunk and sets the toolbox on top of his car, gazing around at the back of his car noticing the blood splatters and the sticky tendons that are attached to the bumper in the back.

I will admit the car is gross looking. Anything you can think of; blood, entrails, tendons, flesh, tissue, _anything_ is stuck to this car; even bits of bone. It doesn't look pretty at all, the only clean part of the car is the roof; everything else is coated with dried blood and emitting a sickly scent that words can't even describe.

I walk around the front of the car; gagging a little at the smell while my eyes catch a few mangled corpses stuck underneath the bumper, not really moving and completely dead; I think. With a heavy amount of blood and gooey strings of _whatever_coating the grill and headlights, I'm just assuming they're dead at this point.

It's disgusting, there's no way any amount of horror movies could have prepared me for this; it's the scent that's getting to me above all, really. I'm used to seeing most of this, so that doesn't really bother me a whole lot. But smelling something that's been dead for about a month and times it by however many corpses you've hit; and there you go.

Curious, I kneel down to get closer to the corpses under the car; who knows, maybe they're someone I once knew, or a schoolmate of some sort. I don't know if they're fully dead, considering a few fingers on one of the arms is still twitching like crazy, and one of the heads keeps blinking its gross eyes, thankfully it's missing its bottom jaw so it can't really bite down on any of us but still; it's fucking creepy none the less.

"I don't feel comfortable with you that close." His voice sounds a bit alarming at first, noticing how mesmerized I am by the mangled mass of limbs underneath the front of the car. I feel two hands grab a hold of my shoulders and haul me upwards, standing me up on my feet and spinning me around to face him with his concerning dark eyes.

"Sorry, I was just-" I began, holding his eye contact while a faint grin slowly spreads across his face. His body language says it all; he's also impressed that we've made it out unharmed. But even if we _did_ get hurt, I'd honestly reverse time and warn him about it without him noticing a thing.

"Curious? It is quite a sight." He finishes my sentence, letting go of my shoulders and taking a step back, gazing down the pile of horrors underneath his car with a disgusting expression painted across his face.

My eyes hold Mr. Jefferson's without any problems now, his lips twitch into a tiny smile while he gently moves me aside, gripping oddly enough a machete that he must have found in the back of his trunk as he kneels down on the paved road, and begins to hack down the broken limbs and gooey blood strings that are attached to the bottom of his car.

The sickening sound of metal hitting flesh is all I can hear, I just stand behind him watching him rip apart all of the limbs from under his car while he carefully avoids getting blood on his clothes; because once again, we forgot to pack extra clothes. He grunts a little bit, trying to unhook one of the heads from underneath while stabbing it in the face a few times to make sure it's dead for good.

My eyes linger around the road, in case anything else decides to show up and ruin the fun, the long stretch ahead of us goes up a very large hill in the distance, whereas behind us it's not so much of a huge drop. If I remember correctly, over that huge stretch is where the next town is; and hopefully everything all will be okay.

"If you'd like, you could wipe down the headlights while I finish cleaning up this mess." Mr. Jefferson breaks the silence with a chore, his head nods in the direction of the toolbox that's beside his feet, that has a light blue cloth sticking out of the open lid.

"Sorry for interrupting your daydreams, Max." He adds sarcastically, removing the last bit of the limbs and kicking them aside to the gravel part of the road.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever; somebody's gotta wipe them down anyways." I walk along behind him towards the toolbox on the other side him. Without any hesitation I grab the cloth and then walk over towards the water filled ditch on the passenger side, dipping the cloth in and returning back to the car; wiping down each of the headlights while the cloth suddenly turns into a dark red color.

After a few minutes of cleaning up the front of the car, Mr. Jefferson kicks the mangled limbs that are beside his feet towards the ditch, walking down towards the water and washes off the blood from his machete. I on the other hand, completely finished wiping down the front headlights and chucking the cloth across the road since there's no point in even trying to save it with the amount of blood on that thing.

I wipe my hands together, in an attempt to remove the blood since they're tinted with a little bit of red from the cloth as I begin to walk towards the front of the car where he is, once again I gaze around the road; nothing to be in sight which is a good thing, considering I'm always terrified of having something come out from behind us and either kill me before I get a chance to rewind, or slaughter Mark in front of me with no remorse.

"Could you go inside through the back door for a minute?" He asks me vaguely while he opens the front door, placing his freshly clean machete against the driver's seat, he then shuts the door and picks up his toolbox; returning to the back of the car. He walks a bit slower than before, with a devilish grin smeared across his lips.

Confusion hits me instantly, I gaze around one last time, noticing a small blob up near the top of the long stretch on the road that appears to be driving forward towards us. He probably has the windshield wiper fluid lying on the floor back there; the least I can do is grab it for him if he ever decides to plow through more corpses like that ever again.

Oddly enough he doesn't notice the blob that's moving down the massive hill in front of us, it appears to be far away so we should have time to get in the car and drive away before we cause any trouble with whoever it is. I open the back door and crawl in, looking around on the ground for the fluid, but to my surprise; there's nothing in here besides the bag with the few cans.

The realization suddenly hits me a little, I've had a few dreams like this before; but I never imagined that it would actually happen, especially with him. But to be fair I did cut him off while we were in the kitchen, the least I can do is make it up to him.

I feel him also jump into the back seat with me, closing the door behind him while towering over me with his legs pinning me down. I turn around, lying down on my back and I glance up at him with a curious gaze; unaware of his complete intentions, all though I _do_ have a slight hint as to where he's going with this; based on how his eyes are piercing mine with a sexual desire.

My eyes widen softly, along with a small smile spreading across my lips; causing him to grin widely in return, he knows that I know what he plans on doing; and he knows that I'm okay with whatever happens right now.

My heart begins to thump uncontrollably again, just the thought of him suddenly showing his emotions after being so quiet and repressing it for so long; it feels right, to me at least.

"We never really had any time to ourselves yet..." He began, trailing off of the end of his sentence just a tiny bit while leaning over me, squished in the back seat of his car. His lips touch mine forcefully while his hands trail along down my body, touching over my breasts and eventually towards my jeans.

My body warms up, flushing my cheeks red immensely while I feel his body pressing down on top of mine while he grins mischievously, kissing my lips and biting down gently once again. The touch of his skin on mine is beyond exciting; it's almost as if I can float away with how lightheaded I am right now.

"A-are you sure we have time?" I manage to say between the passionate kisses that he throws at me, catching me off guard and causing me to stumble over my words while he slides his hand inside my jeans, and wrapping his fingers around the lace I've had on for longer than I'd like to admit.

"We have all the time in the world." He grins once more, using his other hand to undo his belt and fumbling with it a bit, the desire lusting in his eyes tells me everything; he plans on accomplishing everything we've both mentally discussed.

He then takes one of my soft hands, guiding it along the front of his body, pressing my hand against his erection while letting me feel it against his tight pants. I haven't felt so alive like this before, it seems like it was just yesterday that we were separated by two different worlds; an aspiring student, and a passionate teacher. He then takes my hand away and slides it directly inside of his pants, firmly closing my fingers around his massive erection while a shit-eating grin spreads across his face, getting me used to the feeling since he knows I've never went this far before, with anyone.

"Don't be afraid, you'll like it once I-" He was cut off the sound of a loud horn blasting right next to his parked car, he lets out a defeated sigh; turning his head around and instantly going flaccid at the sight of who's next to us.

I can hear the laughter from in here with the doors shut and the windows rolled up, I notice the rust colored truck that pulled up beside the car almost instantly; I peek my head around Mr. Jefferson's body and meet eyes with Chloe herself, who has her head against her steering wheel dying of laughter at the sight that she's witnessing.

The happiness explodes inside of me, I knew she escaped; I just knew it. Never mind the fact that she just caught us red handed... After a month of practically being alone with just us two in that desolated town you have no idea how excited I am to see someone that I once knew still alive and well; even thought she caught us in the act.

"What the_fuck_ are you two doing? Christ, Max!" She sarcastically hollers at us after she's calmed down, Mr. Jefferson clips his belt back together and opens the back door, I pull my hand out and keep it at my side while he slides out and forcing a small smile out towards her while gazing down at the ground in defeat.

Chloe opens her truck door, trying to hide back her laugh while she passes by Mr. Jefferson and approaches the open car door, instantly grabbing my hands and hauling me out of the back seat and wrapping her arms around me tightly, with her eyes brimming with tears.

Words can't describe how happy I am, I mean I was happy before; but after pondering the idea if Chloe was alive or dead after all the crap we've been through with Nathan in the beginning of the school year, I just can't contain my excitement knowing that I was right; she escaped and she's alive.

After everything that we've been through; the storm, even explaining to her the time travelling ordeal, it's been over six years since she's actually hugged me in a friendly manner, and it's been almost two months of silence from the both of us so I know once we get together not only will I have some explaining to do; she will too as well.

"I thought you were dead, serial killer." She pulls away after a few seconds of the touching moment, with her blue hair fluttering in the breeze and a cocky grin on her face, knowing exactly what we were up to.

"So did I, look at the front of his car." I mutter, smirking slyly as well while she glances over at the front, and twists up her face in a disgusting expression before returning her gaze to me and smiling at something she probably has lingering around in that head of hers.

"I didn't need to see the front; all I needed to see was what was happening in the back, looked like a party to me." She scoffs directly at the both of us, grinning from ear to ear while she hugs me again out of pure excitement.

Mr. Jefferson coughs a little, avoiding Chloe's lingering gaze while she tries to get him to crack up or at least talk to her, whereas I on the other hand admit defeat and plead guilty to the actions that we were engaged in.

The sunlight now reaches the middle of the sky, emitting a harsh amount of heat that's pounding against all of us in the middle of nowhere. My eyes gaze to Mr. Jefferson who looks a bit embarrassed that out of all the odds we got caught by Chloe; my best friend from childhood, and one of his former students before she got expelled.

"What, you didn't think I've done that before?" She slyly grins, nudging Mr. Jefferson in the side a little; he cracks a small smile, knowing damn well that he got caught trying to get it off with me in the back seat of his car.

"Jefferson; you didn't seem like the type of teacher to do something like that, huh?" She jokes even more, clearly enjoying herself at this pleasurable moment in her life while he scratches the back of his head, hiding his face a little and lowering his voice to a softer pitch.

"Yeah I normally don't, but with the given circumstances... Also, you can call me Mark from now on; after all you've survived a zombie apocalypse by this point, the least I can do is lower my status to yours." He returns to the front of his car, opening the door and starting up the engine; listening for one of Chloe's casual comebacks that she always does.

"_Given circumstances _he says, as he fucks Max Caulfield." She wraps her arm around my shoulder, laughing like a maniac while he pretends to ignore her, hearing every word she just said all while holding back an uncomfortable smirk.

She then turns her attention towards me, raising her fingers towards her hair and tucking a few strands behind her ear.

"I was heading back trying to see if I could find you in that shithole; I just knew you weren't dead Max. Everything was completely destroyed, I drove by your house and saw it flattened, just barely hanging on and I figured you were one of them. Anyways, get in your little car and follow me back up the stretch; you'll be amazed at what we have up there."

She then turns around, winking slyly at Mr. Jefferson before hopping up inside of her pickup truck, starting up the engine once again letting it roar back to life while she waits for me to get inside the car, so that way we aren't separated ever again.

I shouldn't keep her waiting; after all she now has this against me. It's better her than having the corpses sneak up on us that's for sure so I guess I shouldn't complain much.

I shut the back door, walking along the gravel part alongside the ditch, my eyes catch a glimpse of the limbs Mr. Jefferson scraped off of the bottom of his car twitch a little underneath the water surrounded by blood and entrails that were also found from underneath his car.

I open the passenger door and take a seat, buckling up my seat belt while he hands me the machete to set down in the glove compartment . I shut the door while Chloe flashes us another smirk once again, wagging her finger at us jokingly as she rolls up her window and begins to drive back up the stretch on the wrong side of the two line road, as we trail along beside her in silence.


	3. Third time's the charm

The only sound that lingers in the air is the sound of the car's tires on the old, broken road; rumbling away while the two of us are quiet as can be, and rethinking the actions that we almost partook in the backseat. The silence is a little uneasy but none the less bearable, for me at least; I have no idea how Mark feels, and based on how timid he seems to speak up about it, I'd say it's eating him alive. Mr. Jefferson continues to drive up the long stretch without any other sound between us verbally, while Chloe speeds ahead of us a bit on the opposite side of the road, she flashes us a quick smirk from her passenger side window and blasts her old horn along the way; swerving in and out of the lines like usual, having a good time and carelessly not giving a fuck.

My eyes gaze out of the window yet again, I've always felt drawn to the leafy trees, or the heavy vegetation so whenever I'm in a long car ride I'm not really bored; all I have to do is just look out the window and let my mind wander to wherever it wishes to go.

I'm not really used to the whole embarrassed emotion yet considering I'd normally just rewind and get myself out of that situation, so all of this is quite new to me to be honest. Yeah, there have been times in the past before I could rewind where I just wanted to curl up under a blanket and hide for days - weeks even, just to get away from whatever it was that I had done. I can't really think off the top of my head of_what_ exactly I did, but I'm pretty sure it was devastating for me at the time.

I can feel Mr. Jefferson's eyes digging into the side of my face whenever he takes his eyes off of the road for a brief moment, of course I don't move a muscle; which is probably making the awkward tension even worse for the both of us. I do want to tell him how I feel, I mean Hell; I've had a crush on him for a very long time now, and after this whole epidemic it just gets even stronger with each passing minute.

I can recall a few times around when I first started technically '_living_' with him where I would just randomly shout my feelings at him in the middle of the day, and before he could even reply; I'd just rewind and pretend like nothing ever happened, mainly just to get the tension off of my chest so that way I can think clearly for the rest of the day. Yeah, I admit it wasn't really a smart choice because whenever I'd do it, I would end up getting a killer nosebleed and then all of a sudden I'm asleep on his couch until the next day, which resulted into me limiting my power in the meantime. But my point did get across; I hope it lasts for a long time, because I've never been the type who would openly blurt out my feelings and hoped to be accepted. Like I said before, I never even had any experience in anything really; I'm all new to this whole idea of love and accepting, not to mention sex.

"I didn't mean to, if that's what you're thinking about." His voice emits a shy frequency, disrupting the silence barrier we subconsciously put up around ourselves inside his car.

My eyes shift over towards his direction; he doesn't seem like the type to apologize after something like _that_happening, not to mention his eyes seem to be fixated along the road as we slowly make our way to the top of the stretch. Half of me wants to tell him the truth; to let him know how I don't know what to expect at all from any of this, considering I've never had a real stable relationship before. _Is_ this even considered a relationship to begin with? I really don't know, but I feel that he has to know sometime eventually.

My eyes gaze down at the car mat for a second, pondering the idea on if I should speak up and be honest; even if it's a little bit at least he'd still know how I feel about all of this. My breathing settles down after the adrenaline from before leaves my system; my heart however still continues to flutter about.

"It's not that, I'm just not used to it is all..." I quietly admit, peeling my eyes away from the floor and glancing up at him again, reassuring him that he didn't do a thing wrong with the actions he had tried.

He gently smiles, returning his focus onto the road while we just make it to the top of the stretch; Chloe's truck automatically brakes and comes to a halt on the other side of the road, causing Mr. Jefferson to do the same thing; swerving beside her and slamming on the brake with a confused expression as to why she suddenly stopped.

Confused as well, I silently watch Chloe's jaw drop from the view in front of us, she quickly gazes over at us touching eye contact with me for a brief second before she hops out of her truck, and just stands there.

Mr. Jefferson falls silent as well, I still refuse to gaze through the windshield at the sight in fear of knowing that it's what I expected it to be back in Mr. Jefferson's house. And based on how these two are acting; I think I'm right.

Chloe's eyes glaze over towards us in confusion after a few more seconds of staring down at her new found town; she walks over towards the driver's side of the car and gently taps on the window with her knuckles. Mr. Jefferson casually rolls it down and then I can see the sheer terror sketched across her usually content, and fearless face.

Instantly my eyes turn towards the image in front of us; revealing the same long road spiraling down towards the small town that has a few open fields suitable for farming, and what appears to be the country side of the state we're now in. There also just so happens to have _a lot_ of tiny blobs moving around towards the small houses that are clustered together, something tells me that this isn't good at all.

"Max, Warren's down there. I also found that little Prescott nerd and Alyssa a few days ago too when I was looking for you." Her voice shows sympathy for the other two, but definitely not for Nathan one bit; and I don't blame her.

I find that ironic how Nathan managed to survive whereas Victoria became one of them, something tells me he clearly had something to do with it considering Victoria was more sympathetic when she was alone. Nathan however, is going to take some getting used to after the whole Kate Marsh incident along with the stunts he pulled in the past.

Mr. Jefferson's eyes narrow deeply at the mention of Nathan's name, clearly he never liked that little shit stain either; based on how he treated Kate when she was still alive and content enough to continue to keep on living.

"So, what do we do? Because from up here; the situation down there still looks as worse to me." Mr. Jefferson glances over at Chloe, waiting for her to answer while the blobs slowly but surely begin to fester around the small gate that appears to be surrounding the town down there.

Chloe bites her lip, chewing on the edge of it while her eyes stay fixated on the mess that's down below us. Her arms cross in front of her chest and she just stands there, pondering the idea of what to do.

The blobs look like tiny little ants from up here, it's hard to tell if they're people, or corpses to be honest. It's amazing what perspective can do and how it affects situations like this as well. I'm assuming the gate must be bigger up close, and by the looks of it I'd say they made it with scrap metal and shipyard crates.

Silence is usually golden, but in this case; it's not. The wind whips around us while the clouds suddenly begin to fill the once clear sky, threatening us with a storm of some sort. Just as long as it isn't the same storm that wiped out Arcadia Bay I think we'll be fine. The trees' leaves lash around in the chilling air while the bushes rustle against the motion, sending bits and pieces of branches and grass swirling around on the road.

"Well what else is there to do, Mark? When I left everything was fine; there were no signs of those fucking _things_ crawling around, and I was only gone for not even ten minutes. The world's going to shit; _what are we supposed to do now_?" Her words leave a scar on the both of us, shattering the remaining hope I had for this outbreak staying in Arcadia Bay. But to be fair I had a feeling this would have happened; they need to eat, and when there's no food they'll migrate until they find some. I should stop weaving false hope between my fingers and focus on the reality of things from now on.

Mr. Jefferson grows silent once again, knowing that Chloe's right and what_is_ there to do now? His eyes glance down at his steering wheel for a while before he meets her eyes once more.

"You're right, what can we do? It's dangerous to go down there but we can't simply go back to Arcadia Bay either." Now the realization is starting to hit all of us on how bad this situation really is. Even when we were trapped inside of his house I still had a feeling that it was a lot worse than we thought, but of course I tried so hard to shove that down and keep it from resurfacing ever again. I guess Mark also knew that things weren't getting any better either.

Chloe's eyes glare deeply at him, if there's anything I know it's that she doesn't leave anybody else behind. She's been looking for me for the entire month when things started going to shit so what does that say about her personality?

Her arms uncross and her light colored eyes grow dark within a matter of seconds, she quickly turns around with her back facing towards us who are still in the car while her voice sounds low, and terrifying.

"Well, I'm not letting them die; Nathan I could care less, but the rest of the people I've met? No way, I'm going." Before another word can be said, Chloe hauls herself up and hops inside of her truck and begins to skid off down the side of the massive hill against the rough road towards the small town below, in the hopes of saving whoever else could possibly be left from this sudden onslaught.

Mr. Jefferson lets out a loud, irritating sigh. Starting up the engine, he turns his head towards me while his eyes pierce into mine with a powerful emotion, holding my gaze and completely immobilizing every part of my body.

"We can't let her go down there by herself, you do realize this right?" His words are very softly spoken while he reaches for the clutch and without another word spoken between us we begin to speed down the side of the hill, gaining speed with each passing second. I can tell Mr. Jefferson's starting to lose a little bit on control of the wheel, considering the fact that the car keeps drifting off towards the left, where there's a huge drop of nothing but jagged cliffs, trees, and bushes along with a lake that flows right into the town.

My eyes stay focused on the side of the road with the cliff, every fiber in my body is screaming at me to be prepared for what's about to happen next. I guess you can say even before the whole reverse time ordeal I _did_have a sixth sense; I was always wary of something horrible happening and usually I was right most of the time. However, I didn't know what the horrible feeling would be; it could range from anything from a death, to a horrible accident. But I guess now with this rewind ability it seems to make my life a little easier.

Within a few seconds after that realization; a mangled corpse crawls its way up onto the road from the forest side, Chloe swerves and manages to avoid it without any problems; us on the other hand, Mr. Jefferson seems to be more focused on the oncoming corpses that are herding around at the massive gate that was created to keep them out of the town in the first place as we're nearing closer and closer towards the town.

My eyes widen greatly, making eye contact with the hideous thing's cloudy eyes right before impact. It barely has any hair left on its head while its face seems to have been torn apart from either decay or a fight with an animal of some sort, its clothes that it died with resemble the same consistency of old rags now, and they fray against its deathly skin that just barely clings onto its bones. Oddly enough it resembles my dad, but I can't be too sure because half of its face is missing and I honestly started forgetting what everybody looked like, considering I left all of my pictures and my Polaroid camera behind in my old, destroyed home.

The second the car collides with the corpse, it explodes against the force from the car hitting its decaying body. The blood completely covers the entire windshield, drenching the entire front side of the car after we worked so hard to clean it up in the first place.

Mr. Jefferson usually isn't a one to panic, but this particular event; sent him in a full blown array of hysteria. The struggle to keep the car on the side of the road is unbearable, the car tugs in the direction towards the cliff; and within moments I can't feel the ground beneath us at all.

I panic as well, the shock from not feeling anything below is astonishingly terrifying. It almost takes a few seconds before I can even react to what the Hell's happening around us.

The car goes barreling down the side of the cliff, catching on the jagged rocks and denting the fuck out of this tiny car, the trees and bushes somewhat help in breaking the fall considering how fast we were going in the first place, but none the less we have a _long_ trip ahead of us if I don't do something, and fast.

"Shit, now what!?" Mr. Jefferson just lets go of the wheel, giving up on the fact that he's no longer in control of the car and we're in the mercy of whatever decides to help us at this point. The view outside our other windows give us quite a whirling visual, one minute we're upside down, the next we're right side up. Over and over again we just tumble down the cliff. The car begins to scrape against the rocks, shaking the both of us around and sending off the airbags, my senses finally kick in; I've always been talking about using my ability at the right time, and to me this looks like the right time.

Without another word escaping my lips, I quietly raise my hand out in front of me; Mr. Jefferson just stares in awe at what I'm doing, considering at any given moment I can easily snap my wrist from the amount of movement going on inside the car.

"What are you-" Before he can even finish his sentence; instantly I can feel this entire moment, the universe itself being sucked up inside of my hand with a strange tingling feeling. The scenes leading up to this moment flash all around me in reverse, giving only me the mere visual of how we just escaped death whereas nobody else will remember a damn thing.

I mentally cut off to the part where I wanted it to; right when Chloe hops into her truck after she speeds off and we're barreling down right behind her. It takes a few seconds to adjust to the scene after witnessing what could have been the end of the both of us.

"Swerve." My voice sounds dark, keeping my eyes peeled at the same spot where the corpse appeared on the side of the road. My head begins to pound immensely after the whole use of my rewinding time ability, mentally draining me already to the point of where all of my pain is internally. I know if I use it one more time I'll start to have the physical symptoms soon, so for the sake of staying conscious; I hope Mark doesn't fuck this up.

He stares at me confused for a second, taking his eyes off of the road just as the corpse appears and Chloe swerves in time to avoid it. Of course Mr. Jefferson looks back at the road just in time to watch the body explode, and off we go tumbling down the side of the cliff again.

The familiar rocking motion engulfs my senses yet again, sending the both of us down the side of the rocky cliff without any remorse. I can already feel my headache worsening at the thought of reversing again.

"Oh for fuck's sake." I mumble harshly, growling a little at this predicament I've gotten us trapped inside of. Mr. Jefferson just stares at me with a really dazed expression on his face, probably wondering what the Hell I'm going on about. If only he knew what I'm capable of doing...

My hand rises again, holding it out steadily against the shaking motion of the car, the rewinding starts up again, I urge myself to push it to a little bit past the point where I stopped previously, maybe this time I'll be able to stop us from hitting that thing on the side of the road.

I cut it off at the part where Chloe's walking back to her truck to drive off dangerously down the hill; my eyes glance around getting me used to this scene before it happens so I can make sure I'm in the right spot.

The storm still brews around us, nothing out of the ordinary so it must be just an actual thunderstorm of some sort. If we make it out of this continuous loop of horrible events then the next thing to worry about is finding a shelter from this storm.

"Focus on the road this time." Irritated from the past events, I begin to feel the blood trickling down from my nose, immediately my hand reaches towards my face while Mr. Jefferson cautiously glances over at me to make sure if I'm alright as we begin to drive down the hill after her at the same speed we've been travelling the first time.

His eyes gaze at me once more to make sure I'm alright, he immediately tenses up when his eyes meet mine, and then linger down to the blood spilling out between the cracks of my fingers. Never mind the fact that he's supposed to be focused on the road; especially going down it this fast.

"You're bleeding, are you alright?" Concerned, his eyes begin to drift off towards me, just as he focuses all of his attention towards me the corpse appears on the road, Chloe swerves it without any issues like she has the past couple times now, and once again we hit the same damn body that sends us spiraling down towards our pending demise.

Everything inside me just breaks; both metaphorically and physically speaking. The fact that I just tried two times now surely means that there's no way we're going to get out of this alive; and that this is how we are supposed to die. Not to mention the fact that ever since Chloe showed up we've been having shit luck; I shouldn't jump to conclusions after all, this is the first incident after finding her.

"_Now_ I'm not..." I mutter to myself while we go tumbling down against the trees and rocks again in the same repeated pattern. My head almost explodes with a searing amount of pain and not to mention the blood doesn't trickle down my face anymore; it flows violently covering the entire front side of my shirt.

I don't know if I can do one more, I just did it twice in a row and if my body feels this weak right now; who knows what'll happen if I try it again. My eyes can barely stay open at this point; everything inside of me is feeling the pressure; especially my heart and brain. I don't have a choice, _something_ has to change this outcome. _Something just has to_...

Once again I find the strength to even lift my arm upwards a little against the rough motion of the car, stretching out my hand I begin to feel the pulling motion of the entire universe inside of my palm. The scene rewinds once again and stops by itself without me telling it to when Chloe was about to say her line, jump inside her truck, and drive away recklessly but the sound of me choking on my own blood, while my vision goes black and slamming against the dashboard lifelessly causes the both of them to stop whatever they were both planning on doing and focus on what's happening to me instead.


	4. A stormy night

Nothing can describe the feeling of floating around in an endless pit of white light, I've tried to come up with words for this strange feeling; but I just simply can't. It's almost like diving underwater and floating there for hours; the feeling of nothing touching you, the swaying motion you're constantly going through, and every thought of feeling you've previously had simply melts away. I must admit that I haven't felt this relaxed in ages.

I can't tell if my eyes are open or closed, and honestly all I remember from what happened was the metallic taste in my mouth along with the sound of my face hitting the dash board... Other than that I have no idea if I saved us from crashing, or if I'm dead for good this time.

Of course my mind instantly jumps to Mr. Jefferson, even when I'm alone in a strange place I still find myself lingering over him like he's the last human being alive - which we proved wrong luckily. I know he was concerned about the blood, and I should have just stopped and let the event happen because who knows? Maybe we got out of there alive, just the car wouldn't work. Whatever, it's over and done with; and I have no fucking clue where the Hell _I_ even am.

After what feels like an eternity, the pure white world fades into darkness; either that or I just closed my eyes. I can't tell what just happened, but all I know is that there seems to be just a massive chunk of ground floating in mid air, like something from a video game. There's a colossal sized tree where I literally have no other words to glorify its size; considering my height barely reaches the exposed roots emerging from the dirt. The sky is a bright blue with white clouds breezing by, it looks pretty normal to me for now and there also appears to be two moons; one of them takes up almost half of the space in the sky whereas the other is a bit smaller and looks like it's just floating behind the massive one in the front. There are chunks of floating ground nearby sharing the same landscape as this one almost, some have more trees than this one, and others don't even have any. But what stands out to me the most is that the tree on this one appears to be the biggest out of them all.

My eyes gaze around the open space in confusion of course, mesmerized by its obscure details; yet fascinated at the same time that I'm actually living this experience. I wasn't really a gamer but I do remember my dad playing a lot of fantasy games when I was younger. The thought of where I am hasn't really occurred to me, I have that odd sensation that no matter what I'll be safe whether I make it back to the real world or not. I'm just hoping that the accident didn't happen; something just_has_ to break that fate's desperation to occur.

I can't even feel my feet move along the grass towards the colossal trunk in the middle of this piece of land; my fingers reach out and gently touch the bark that's in front of me. Oddly enough it feels too smooth to even be considered a tree, but it looks just like one with its massive amount of leaves shading the nonexistent sunlight away.

Logic doesn't exist here too obviously; the sky is bright, even though there is no sun. The two moons do intrigue me greatly, I can't keep my eyes off of them and I'm just wishing I had my camera to snap a quick picture of this strange phenomenon.

"Max?"

I whip around instantly at the sound of hearing my own name. I know I was alone when I got here, nobody else was on here when I "woke" up. Unless this is the work of the nonexistent logic on this world; then it could just be relaying information from people in my past before this world epidemic happened. I don't know anymore, I'm so confused on where I am right now...

Victoria appears behind me while keeping a content expression on her face, looking like as if she was never torn apart and had everything of hers intact; including her face that was shredded to bits the last time I saw her in Mr. Jefferson's garage. Her cold eyes still send shivers down my spine whenever I try to hold her eye contact, but none the less I am glad to see someone else here other than me; even if it just so happens to be _her_.

"Weren't you-" I can't even get the words out of my mouth without the flashbacks of her corpse trying to claw her way at me against the car's window. Based on my memory I think she left scratches in the glass too, I could be wrong though; minor details anyways.

"Figured you'd end up here sooner or later." She mumbles, ignoring my sad attempt at asking her how she's still alive. She crosses her arms and avoids my glance as well; clearly she knows what's up with me and Mr. Jefferson. She focuses on the grass towards the direction of the moons, scowling bitterly and trying to ignore the fact that I'm still standing here on this odd platform.

"What exactly _is_ here?" My voice comes out rougher than I had expected, hauling her piercing glare towards my direction instead of the grass below our feet.

Her lips curl into that same old sneer she constantly used to give off, her arms uncross and she simply walks towards me without making any noise on the grass below the both of us, giving me a very uneasy feeling on what's going on.

"I thought someone as smart as you would know what this place is. You're dead, Max Caulfield." She almost sneers in excitement as those words escape her lips with an evil snicker at the end. She uncrosses her arms and gradually walks towards me and places her hand against the trunk as well.

"Everything you love, is now jeopardized by your pathetic attempt to save your own life." Her lips curl into a sinister smile, beckoning me to knock her senseless with my own two fists.

Silence engulfs the two of us who just stare awkwardly at each other for a long time. The living and the dead face to face on a somewhat open field, all alone. As far as I know I'm still living and she's only saying this to get me to panic. But I can't take my chances with what she says too, because for all I know the rest of the people I know who are dead could show up; and then what will happen to the others who are still alive and well, surviving this horrible plague of the damned?

"Why should I even believe a word you say, after everything you've caused before the outbreak." The words spit out bitterly, causing her smile to slowly vanish into a thin line. Quickly wiping that sinister smile off of her angry face as if she planned something devious to do with me since we are alone out here.

"Because I saw the way he stared at you in that car, why would I even let someone like you have someone like him?" Her sentence grows colder with each word she adds, moving closer and closer towards me with a dark aura surrounding her and turning the warm gentle breeze into a bone chilling cold one.

Almost instantly her eyes fade into red, and her teeth grow massively sharp, along with her fingers that are now long and jagged like weapons. The world itself slowly fades into a spiral of disasters; the massive tree behind me fades into a dead, decaying one that has no leaves and is barely clinging to the dirt on this floating chunk, headstones litter the entire back row of the tiny floating island, while the two moons slowly fade into blood red; and the sky, a dark grey with stormy black clouds lingering inside.

My eyes can't believe how quickly her mood has changed everything; it's almost like this her domain and she can do anything she pleases. It's like she forged this place herself out of despair and chaos; and that safe feeling I had got scared away the second she appeared.

Swirls of purple surround her body almost, it's faint and not really noticeable but I definitely see something odd happening and I don't know if it's a good thing or not. It probably isn't... A smile once again appears across her face, this time bearing razor sharp teeth with drops of insanity sewn into her burning eyes.

"Give me your soul, Max. Give me your body as well." Her voice is morphed with the sound of two devilish beings along with her darkened tone combining to make some truly terrifying sounds that are completely inhuman and strands of evil erupt from every word she says.

Her overwhelming power shakes me a little, the fact that I can clearly feel the anger and hatred burning off of her without any remorse or second guessing from her end. Not to mention how quickly this peaceful world suddenly turned into nightmare fuel laced with demonic souls trapped inside a teenage girl's body. How the fuck do I get out of this one?

As she nears closer, I move away backwards; slowly stumbling towards one of the many edges on this floating island. The ground begins to shake where the headstones are, revealing reanimated corpses' arms struggling to break the surface for a piece of the action that's happening right now. The sharp, piercing screeches of demonic Hell birds echo across the dark sky, soaring above us with a massive wingspan and their eyes all fixated on me in return.

"If I had it my way, I'd just push you off of this ledge." The sudden swirls die down and her voice returns to normal as if nothing had ever happened in the first place. Of course this place still looks the same as it has when she changed it into this death and chaos world, and the corpses are now stumbling around to get their footing on the ground. Oddly enough all of those faces resemble people that I've once known who I know have died; especially my parents.

"Nobody's getting in; unless you die of course, and nobody is getting out." She finishes her sentence with a twisted laugh, flicking her wrist aside and instantly vanishing into thin air. I know she wouldn't just cop out on me like that, she has the perfect opportunity to destroy me so I know she's toying with me right now to see if I'll try to escape. The only problem though is, _where_ do I escape to?

I can't even react to what the Hell is going on in here, I know I'm not in the real world; especially since I saw her dead and trying to kill me. So maybe she is right, maybe I did die. Maybe this is where I belong now, or maybe that's exactly what she wants me to think. I can't tell anymore, and my rewinding abilities don't work in this twisted place too.

As the rotting corpses begin to make their way towards me, snarling and groaning with discomfort and hungering for flesh, I can feel the end of the ledge behind me; descending towards the spiraling abyss of darkness. Something strangely enough is telling me to jump; but the logical side of me is saying that if I do jump, it's all over.

"What's the matter Max, afraid of heights?" She appears once again, this time she shows no resemblance whatsoever of who she once was. Yeah she still has the same face and the same hair, but it's darker than before and the swirls formed a mystical, demonic plain black dress that covers her frail body as well. Her long, jagged fingers reach out towards me, grabbing me by the shoulders while she brings her face close towards mine.

"Enjoy your time with him; for I will be taking everything you love afterwards." She forces out one last sadistic smirk before pushing me with every ounce of force that she has, off of the ledge of the floating island. Once again my body is plummeted into the sensation of nothing surrounding me while my eyes fixate on her laughing demonically as the vision gets smaller and smaller the faster I descend towards the bottomless pit below.

The tingling sensation of electricity buzzes around me, tiny little pale blue streaks of electricity surround my hopeless body as I spiral towards the bottom of the fall. Confused and slightly curious I raise my hands to my face, only to be greeted by the electricity focusing around the palms of my hands; creating energy that must be connected to my ability to time travel.

My eyes widen in amazement at what's happening, when I was younger I dreamed of having super powers but I was always told it would never happen; look who's laughing now. Instantly the darkness turns into a blinding bright white empty space again, and I can faintly hear voices of the living nearby; but I can't see anything at all.

"M...ax...? ...ax...!?"

My ears strain against the sound of pure nothing that seem to drown out the familiar voice, I quickly flip myself over in this white universe while the electricity still surges around my body, strangely enough there's no crackling noises or static from what's happening around me. My only guess is that I finally unlocked the rest of my ability or something; maybe I'm not supposed to die after all.

The white universe blurs away slowly into what seems to be an old barn of some sort, the fraying wooden tiles catch me off guard for a split second. There are a few holes in the giant roof of this place but that's the least of our worries right now. My hands feel around on the ground, touching bits of old hay and dirt from previous events I'm assuming, before I feel cloth; from somebody's shirt right next to me. Slightly terrified I glance over, seeing Warren completely passed out right next to me with a few cuts and bruises along his face.

I smile a little, I'm glad him and Chloe made it out alive, they were constantly on my mind ever since Arcadia Bay went to shit. I rest my head back down on the surprisingly comfy hay floor and glance back up at the old rafters while the sound of rain strums along the tin roof with the crackle of lightning that can be visible through the worn out holes in the roof.

"Max...?" Mr. Jefferson's voice can be heard heading towards me along with the sound of wood clattering down to the ground. He instantly rushes by my side and places his hand down on my forehead, smiling faintly and just overall happy in general.

"I thought we lost you, Warren was supposed to keep an eye on you in case you changed." He glares over at the happily sleeping Warren that's beside me, curled up in the opposite direction against the old, worn out barn wall. He removes his hand from my forehead and smirks once again. _Thanks_for having faith in me, Mark.

"You had a fever before, I know you're wondering what happened and I'll get to that soon enough; but I seriously thought you wouldn't make it." He moves bits of hay closer together to form a small pile nearby, sitting down and watching the massive barn door for Chloe to return I'm assuming since she's nowhere to be seen.

My mind just feels at ease to be honest, happy to be back in this world instead of that other one with Victoria, I'm wondering if I should even let Chloe know about what I saw, and what happened with the electricity because if I could do that right now, casting electric bolts; this zombie problem would be _no_problem.

The barn door suddenly creaks a little, opening slowly while a dark figure fumbles around with the lock on the barn door, cursing and spitting on the ground so I know right away that it's Chloe. Eventually she gets the lock and continues on her way towards us with a couple jugs of water and a small backpack that must be filled with something.

"Dude, you won't believe the house that's a few miles away." She's completely drenched from the water and shivers a little. She sets the jugs down on the floor and grabs a small barn blanket from the corner. She then grabs the jugs again and huddles around the rest of us in the corner while uncapping the jug, noticing that I'm awake while her grin grows wider at just the sight of seeing me alive.

"I knew you weren't dead, serial killer. Here, drink up." She hands me the jug while I shakily raise it to my lips, the sweet taste of liquid trickles down my throat in huge gulps, almost draining half of the jug while the two of them just seem genuinely happy to have me alive and well.

Chloe walks over towards Warren and nudges his side with her foot gently, after nothing happens she eventually rams her foot right into his side, causing him to wake up instantly, coughing a little in return.

"What the Hell was that-" He cuts himself off the second his eyes meet mine, it's almost like the pain disappears and he's suddenly sitting up straight and hugging me tightly while laughing and just excited to see me after all of this shit that happened.

His action caught me completely off guard, since he's never really hugged me before like this. Even as friends we'd put our arms around each other's shoulders but other than that, nothing this serious.

"I thought I'd never see you again, Max." He doesn't let go for a long time, Chloe smirks behind Warren shifting her eyes over towards Mr. Jefferson who's silent as a mouse while Warren eventually lets go of me and just sits there staring at me without any words left to say.

"I'm sorry, I just, I missed you Max, not like that; I swear." He avoids my eye contact while I can't help but smile and how clumsy he can be at sometimes when he shows affection. I know he liked me before the whole apocalypse started, like _way before_. I'm kind of hoping he eventually got over it because I only see him as a close friend along with Chloe so, let's hope this doesn't make anything awkward from here on out.

The rain doesn't lighten up either, the sound increases volume against the tin roof while thunder can be heard just a mile away from where the barn's located. Chloe's shivers don't really die down but she doesn't say anything about it, she inches closer towards me while the thick blanket that covers me is slightly damp from the air inside. Mr. Jefferson just stares at the door on the far side of the wall as if the corpses are going to show up at any minute, a dark expression lingers over his near perfect face.

"I suppose you want your explanation right now?" He slowly smirks in my direction, brushing the hay out of my hair while Warren just quiets down and stares at him darkly. I don't know what to think, really. I'm just glad that the crash didn't happen and everybody's still alive; that I know of at least.

"Just a bit." I admit, glancing over at Chloe who seems to look out the cracked window towards a different small town. The clouds are extremely dark while the rain drizzles along and drenches everything in its path. Once again the lightning flashes, completely lighting up the barn for a split second before fading everything back into almost darkness.

"The military showed up and tried to evacuate everyone, the second you hit the dash board one of their helicopters crashed to the ground for no reason." Chloe's eyes swell up with a few tears as she tries to explain, it must have hit her hard considering that was the small town she was living in for a month or so.

Warren notices her reaction to the people that he knew as well, he clears his throat calmly before speaking up; letting her know that he'll finish the rest.

"Yeah, when it crashed everybody was almost killed instantly and then they came back to finish off the rest of us; the living. We didn't even bother trying to search for any survivors. Chloe stopped by the side of the road to pick up Alyssa and I while we ran towards her truck knowing it was her." Warren finishes her sentence for her, realizing that she didn't really want to talk about it considering she knew those people longer than any of us.

"Alyssa's still here, she's just sleeping up on the loft up top to keep watch; I told her she could, unlike _someone else_." Chloe's eyes dart towards Warren in a sarcastic tone, he just glances down to the wooden ground and smiles sheepishly.

"Sorry, all of that running and hiding got me exhausted." He yawns in protest and stretches out his arms, laying back down and resting his head against a small pile of hay. Within a few seconds of him doing that, Chloe also follows his actions and lowers her head down beside mine, smiling up at me before turning around to face the door. Mr. Jefferson just sighs deeply, grabbing the last blanket and sitting against the wall with the cracked window beside Warren; not closing his eyes at all.

Mark's been different lately, I don't know what happened to him but something happened after I was knocked out. That look in his eye reminds me of the same look Victoria gave me just moments ago, I know he wouldn't turn evil or anything; and piecing everything together I'd say the way how Warren's acting around me could possibly be one of the main sources for his behavior.

"Aren't you going to sleep, Mark?" My voice barely manages to not squeak while the words slur a bit from my mouth, he just smiles and rests his head against the wooden panels while the rainstorm rages on behind him.

"I will later, I guess some of the military is still intact after everything that's happened." His head slightly tilts towards the window so he can look outside as well. Back in his house we used to make bets on how long the military would last in this apocalyptic war zone since nobody was ever really prepared for this to happen. He guessed a few months and being the _patriot_ that I am; I guessed a week. To be fair I thought the place would go to shit a lot quicker; so I guess there's more survivors than we think if they're still getting involved to this day with whatever equipment they have still intact.

"Really? How many do you think are left?" My voice still sounds like there's still hope somewhere for all of this to stop, and I know he knows because he instantly goes silent and doesn't speak another word until after a minute or so.

His eyes linger on mine for a few seconds, before drifting off and focusing on one of the pieces of wood nearby that he dropped in a rush; eventually he lets out a deep sigh and returns his wandering eyes to me.

"It's hard to tell, who knows." He settles for the subtle approach, while Warren and Chloe are happily passed out beside me. The rain hits harder against the roof, and the steady sound of the water dripping through the holes onto the floor can be heard a lot clearer now than before. All in all I'd say we're safe for now in this barn, I don't hear any corpse noises being made so there shouldn't be anything to worry about; for now.

"Oh, well, wake me up if something happens." I yawn loudly, curling up on my side while Mr. Jefferson nods his head a little with a soft smile lingering on his face. My eyes slowly close and the last image I'm left with is of him smiling faintly at me with the sound of the rain and the thunder in the distance.


	5. I walk alone

I can feel myself drifting in and out of consciousness almost every hour throughout the drizzling night. I honestly don't remember the last time I had a decent amount of sleep; but I do know it was back when we were in his house fighting off the corpses considering we were well boarded up and had only the fear of running out of food that kept us alert. My eyes open for a bit relaying the darkness and the sound of everybody happily asleep; everyone except for Mark who still manages to stay leaning against the wall with his head resting against his arm, and his eyes gazing off into the distance.

Of course I don't say anything, in fear of stirring up everyone else. Instead I just close my eyes once again and drift around in the nothingness and the fear of what tomorrow might bring us.

My eyes open once again, gazing around the room with a high alert as if someone was trying to get my attention. The first thing I notice is that the storming winds have calmed down; mind you the rain is still lingering in the air. Not to mention the sky outside is getting a little lighter; we've lost track of time a while ago but it reminds me of those 5am school days.

Without trying to cause much movement I shift my body towards the window, Chloe curls up against the makeshift hay bed and stirs about before promptly falling limp and breathing heavily beside me. My eyes then stumble across Mark who's completely slumped over in the corner and peacefully asleep for once. I don't really know if he even slept when we were in his house; so I hope he stays asleep for as long as he needs to be.

A small smile creeps along my face; just knowing that for once instead of caring about me he's caring about himself makes me happy. I know he's put a lot off just for me in general; back when he first found me he made sure that we had everything, enough for two people instead of just him, he even secured my room first before his in his house. My eyes slowly close without any hesitation, and once again I'm drifting off into a dreamless state of mind.

It feels like a few hours have passed; even though I know that's not the case.

The sound of snarling and fingers clawing at the wooden boards rudely wakes me up from my deep sleep, quickly my eyes open and dart around the room; spotting Warren, Alyssa, and Chloe barricading the door with their bodies as the corpses try to plow their way through.

Dazed, I just sit there in the hay pile trying to comprehend what's going on. The light from outside appears to be mid morning while the fresh scent of rain lingers throughout the air around us, and Mr. Jefferson is nowhere to be seen. I managed to jump to my feet without any hesitation anymore, glancing around the small stable for anything I can use as a weapon of some sort because I know damn well they can't hold that door forever.

"Max, break the window!" Chloe hollers over the noise while I quickly scramble to my feet and gaze at the previously cracked window that's just above the stall. I already know there's nothing in here we can use; considering I already tried that as my first instinct. The barn doors slamming against the wooden frame grows louder and louder while the three of them desperately try to keep the flesh-eating monsters at bay.

Without thinking I raise my foot and try to stomp out the cracked glass; all though it's a lot harder than it looks. In defeat, I scrounge around nearby while the sound of their struggle at holding the door increases while the hungering snarls of the undead outside tear at my mind reminding me that I have limited time; considering I don't want another repeat of Victoria in that fucked up world again.

My eyes catch sight of an old brick nearby; quickly I lunge towards the dirt floor to grab the old thing, picking myself up off of the ground I toss the brick with all of the force I can muster at the window. A shattering noise can be heard, and instantly the glass clatters down to the floor. Quickly, I scramble my way out of the broken window; I can feel a few drops of blood trickling down my palms where the remaining glass shards pierce my skin.

"Hurry up, we don't have much time." Chloe's well aware of the shattering noise just as much as the undead are, she begins to slowly break away from the door while Warren and Alyssa stand there with blank faces; struggling to hold the door back by themselves while it slams against the wooden frame even harder than before.

In the distance, the sound of car tires revving up and tearing away into the grass and muddy dirt can be heard, followed by Mr. Jefferson's car whizzing over the gravel driveway. Instantly the car does a hard turn, causing it to slightly drift across the gravel towards me; catching even more of the undead's attention.

"Max, get in quickly!" He hollers over the sound of the light rainfall and the snarling voices of the corpses that start to peel their attention away from the abandoned barn towards the both of us.

The meadow next to the barn is damp and soggy from the weather, causing a few animals to scurry out of harm's way as the corpses make their way through the field. The trees hang low from the rain that's gripping the leaves while everything just looks really dreary and wet. Chloe's truck appears to be parked kind of close to the barn, if worse comes to worse I know she'll make it with the others if we can't wait around.

My eyes gaze behind me one last time, knowing that my friends are still trapped inside and there's nothing I can really do about it makes me feel slightly guilty. Chloe's eyes lock onto mine for a brief moment as she pulls herself through the broken window. The corpses slowly stumble their way towards the gravel, a few of them are on the ground crawling away with only half of their body still intact, the rest are ripped apart from either inflicted wounds or just the decay of being out in the open for so long.

Mr. Jefferson blasts the horn, possibly ruining the little chance we had at getting everyone out safe as well as breaking me from my trance towards the oncoming corpses. Chloe just stands there, huddled against the side of the barn hoping that they don't catch sight of her as she helps the others from the barn without gazing back at me. I don't really have much of a choice since in almost every direction I'm surrounded in a three foot radius; I really hope they can forgive me for this.

I break away instantly, my feet pound away at the soft ground while I slip a few times in the mud, catching myself in the process while slamming myself against the car. I open the door and I don't even have time to close it while he hits the gas with a powerful force, causing not only me to fling against the passenger seat, but the tires to spin rapidly and rip apart at the grass once again before speeding off down the gravel driveway without looking back at the horror we just barely escaped from.

The drive away from the scene was long and gruesome. The silence eats away at me while my face flusters with anger at the fact that he didn't even care about them; he only cared about me. The sound of the light rain hitting against the metal roof echoes around the car, I quickly glance back towards the back seat noticing a small collection of prized weapons ranging from the machete in his tool box to an Ares Shrike 5.56 and a couple 40 calibers with boxes of ammo to last us almost a life time. Of course this peaks my interest; considering he disappeared when I woke up the third time, and the fact that we didn't have this in the back seat before. As curious as I am, I don't waste my breath to ask knowing that he'll either lie to me or give me a vague answer on how he got a hold of these.

An endless amount of thoughts race through my mind, an abundance of _what if_ scenarios flood right through with images of my friends either being trapped inside or ripped apart and feasted on by the dead. Every fiber in my body is begging me to reverse time to try and save them but I know it's far too late at the point.

"How could you do that to them."

After several minutes of silence and watching the wiper blades go off periodically, I finally find my voice to accuse him for the murder of three teenagers. If he wasn't so impatient and helped me try to help them the worst that would have happened was that we'd all die together.

He stays silent, well aware of his actions while we drive along the bend in the miserable weather looming over the fact that they could be dead right now, getting torn apart and fed on knowing that we got away without even trying to help them.

The sound of a few jets flying overhead towards the same direction we're headed grabs my attention for a bit; the military's still active for now, that's a good thing considering this just started up a month ago. If anything I hope they can wipe out all of this damage before it spreads even faster and ends up like one of those cliché apocalypse scenarios where all of the survivors are screwed.

"Answer me." My voice comes out in a low growl, causing him to flinch a little. He still continues to stare ahead at the road, ignoring my simple question knowing that he's responsible for their deaths if we don't ever see them again in the future.

"I had to protect you." He simply states, focusing on the wet road ahead of us.

I rest my head against the seat with anger coursing through my veins, holding back every urge I have to slap him senseless. He's always looked out for me but he never looked out for the others. I don't get why I'm so important; I can't stop this disaster even if I tried. If anything, I don't even know if that mysterious world I was in earlier was related to this at all.

I gaze down at my hands, remembering the electric vibe I had when Victoria pushed me off of the ledge of the floating island; wondering if I can even recreate that again with my powers. Surely I have something more than just rewinding time, I just know I do.

Taking note of my silence and lack of response, he deeply sighs and clutches the steering wheel; focusing his attention over towards me.

"I'm sorry Max, I really am. Maybe they escaped; her truck was parked next to my car." He offers a bit of closure, yet he's still being vague on why he didn't bother to try to help them in the first place. My trust begins to flatten a little with him, leaving helpless people trapped when not only do you have weapons in the back seat to easily take out the corpses, you basically picked up one of them only and left the others in the dust. I can't be the only one who sees a problem here.

The raindrops trickle down the windows of the car, once again; just like every five seconds the wiper blades trigger and wash them all way, only to be replaced by more droplets in return.

"Yeah and knowing that, what's there to say that you didn't siphon all of her gas out and used it for your own car?" I shot back angrily, folding my arms across my chest and avoiding his wandering gaze.

He shuts right up, knowing that I'm beyond pissed at him for his actions. I have a million questions running through my brain; _'where did you go?'_, _'how the Hell did you get these guns?'_, _'why were you up so late?'_ I don't feel like he's a bad person, he _did_ save me a few times. It's just really hard to tell if he'll end up ditching us somewhere or sticking through with the rest of us; if they make it out.

The silence is unbearable, even with the sound of the rain to stray me away from the thoughts of losing all three of them doesn't really help at all. That once feeling of walking on thin air and being unable to breathe around him turns into a heart throbbing pain that pierces my chest even when I'm near him. I hope this pain goes away, I know it will after I find out what happened to them.

"Stop the car." Once again my voice comes out in a low, dark grumble. Mr. Jefferson just stares at me blankly for a few seconds while we continue down the road that's now running through huge fields filled with corpses staggering about near the forest edge in the distance. Even if I have to open this car door and jump out I will attempt to just to be alone for a bit.

His eyes eventually shift towards the open road ahead of us, he clearly doesn't make any attempt to slow down the car whatsoever and his silence is more than unbearable by this point.

"Max I just don't feel safe-" He began to protest, but is immediately cut off by the sound of the car door opening and a deep sigh escaping my lungs to show that I do mean business. He gradually slams on the brakes, emitting an earsplitting shriek from the tires along the pavement while coming to a complete stop on the road.

Without another word, and the images of my friends still being trapped near the barn with dozens of corpses surrounding them greatly make me feel uneasy. I can feel my stomach churning just thinking of them being ripped apart and then becoming reanimated.

The rain eventually turns into a light mist, while a low fog slowly rolls in and makes things ten times even more difficult to see than it already was. The uneasiness doesn't settle down either in my stomach and before I know it I fall to my knees, coughing up bile and whatever contents I have left in my stomach for a few days ago as well all on the side of the road.

My stomach settles down quite a lot after removing whatever I had in my system. I bend down beside the muddy ditch and grab a handful of wet grass; rubbing my mouth until the god awful taste is replaced with grass instead.

Mr. Jefferson rests his head against the steering wheel, looking away and waiting until I'm finished as if he'd also end up on the side of the road with me doing the same thing. Once the gagging noises stop, his head slowly lifts up and our eyes meet for a few seconds. Sparks of hatred and a little bit of love wash over me at the same time; causing a huge clash of emotions to erupt inside of my body.

Should I even get back in the car if this is how conflicted I am? He left them behind to die and only seemed to care for my safety over theirs, and to me that's just not right at all. Of course I can't deny my feelings for him as well; but he seems to have some mystery linked to him in numerous amounts of ways other than just leaving them behind to fend for themselves.

The cool mist feels nice on my dry skin, considering neither of us showered in god knows how long by this point. Everything seems to fade away to silent; the sound of the military aircrafts soaring above as if they're racing to reach a checkpoint nearby, the birds chirping noises dwindle into nothing around us as well.

"Well? Are we going to continue moving forward?" His cheeky smile flourishes across his face while his dark eyes sparkle brightly behind his glasses. His hand is placed firmly on the wheel while he starts the engine up once more, bringing the tiny car back to life while his eyes linger on me.

Right now the hatred is overpowering the love I feel, causing me to slam the door furiously and walking up the road towards the direction we were originally headed. My actions must have caught him off guard considering he didn't start slowly driving ahead until I started walking alone for a minute or so.

I can hear the car slowly driving alongside me while the sound of his automatic window rolling down can be heard as I continue to walk along the road staring straight at the ground with nothing but the mist in my face, and the wind gently blowing the trees' leaves.

"Don't do this, it's dangerous." He persists, driving extremely slow while making sure not to hit me as I continue to walk along without breaking my gaze from the ground that's ahead of me.

It can be dangerous all it wants, I need to clear my head and focus on the potential loss of my friends. We could have saved them; especially with the weapons in the back seat of his car would have done just fine considering there weren't too many corpses surrounding us. Of course we were overpowered by dozens of them but we didn't have anything to kill them with. And to be quite honest; I've never killed one before that didn't involve a car and them being run over.

Several minutes slowly pass by, the mist begins to thicken and once again it starts to drench everything in sight. At first it started with a few noticeable drops appearing on the pavement as I walked, and then it progressively got worse within seconds.

My clothes are soaked all the way through, sticking to my skin like a slippery sheet of shivering wetness. My shoes slosh around with every step I take, which leaves me to feel numb all over. Despite the fact of the rain hammering down above me; I still refuse to get in that car with him.

"Max please! You're soaked completely to the bone. Please get back inside the car." He resorts to pleading with me, the rain falls through his open window, soaking the passenger seat as well as leaving the inside door coated with tiny raindrops. He doesn't seem to complain about the rain in his car; his eyes and attention are more focused onto me.

Before I can even say a word to him, several rows of flashing headlights appear in front of us. Huge military vehicles begin to slow down to a stop with the growling engines blazing through the silent air. One of the men suited up in his attire hops out of the driver's side in the front of the lineup he has behind him. His black boots tap against the sleek road that's now covered with water as he approaches me with a cautious manner.

"Are you crazy? It's raining cats and dogs out here little girl. I see you're being tailgated... Do you need some help with that?" His gaze motions over towards Mr. Jefferson in the car beside me. He has a serious looking gun strapped against his back and by all means I don't think he's afraid to use it.

I clue in quickly as to what he means, since it was clearly one of his objectives to protect people at one point before the people started turning against one another in a frenzy.

"N-no, sir. I'm with him." I hang my head down a little, intimidated by the man's hardened stare and stone quiet face. The water drips from my hair and drops to the ground as the rain intensifies greatly and begins to slam against the ground in thick globs with a strong amount of force.

The man hesitates, focusing his intensifying stare at Mr. Jefferson through his windshield for a very long time. I can tell the man's soaked just from standing out here for not even five minutes already, I really hope there's an extra change of clothes in the trunk of the car from Mark's _obvious_ 'heist.'

"If you're with him then how come you're out here in the rain?" He softens up a little, shifting his weight around on his feet. I manage to raise my eyes towards Mr. Jefferson, who still seems to be silently pleading with me to get back inside of the car and out of the rain. I guess I should at this point; or else I'll freeze to death.

"I... It's, quite a long story actually... I needed a break; so I got out." For some reason always talking to people of higher authority than me always ends up in a clusterfuck of words babbling out of my mouth with random pauses and some horrible format to go along with it.

The man lets out a loud, hearty laugh that bellows around the silent road.

"Okay kid, head on back in now I don't want you freezing to death out here and then we'd have to finish you off." He clearly jokes about the last part; but sadly it also has some truth to it.

Without another word I open the car door and slide inside, rolling up my window in the process while the man approaches Mr. Jefferson's side of the car and taps the window gently with his fingers.

Mr. Jefferson then rolls down his window, face to face with the man as he peers inside the car, whistling at the little collection we have in the back seat.

"An Ares Shrike 5.56, somebody's been window shopping." He then returns his attention over towards me and my soaked attire, giving me a painful _'I'm in the same boat'_expression before turning his gaze to Mr. Jefferson who appears to look nervous as fuck based on what's in the back seat indicating that he definitely stole it from someone.

"It'll come in handy; trust me. Anyways, I really wouldn't head down this way if I were you. We just ran into a nasty herd of those damn things crawling around the Washington area and I'd hate to see you two get slaughtered. We have men stationed up near Post Falls; but that requires you two to turn around and drive for a mighty long time towards Idaho." The man spits on the ground, adding more water to the mixture of the road that's beginning to resemble a lake at this point.

I can just see the look of disappointment in Mr. Jefferson's eyes, he gazes over at me with a sad expression before returning his focus towards the man who's still standing out in this torrential downpour.

"Alright, thank you for your words of wisdom. I wish you luck for wherever you're headed." Mr. Jefferson thanks the man who gives a simple nod of his head and turns around and heads towards his vehicle.

"So that's that. I don't want to risk you getting killed. The turnoff is just a few minutes up this road towards the right, I guess it's a change of plans." He takes the brake off and slowly begins to pick up speed towards the turnoff just ahead. There appears to be several more military vehicles as they slowly begin to move as well in the direction we were just heading from. If anything, I hope they run into the others back there.

The car is dead silent between the two us once again, my body uncontrollably begins to shiver while the feeling returns in my legs and fingers; which feel like nothing but ice water coursing through my veins. The rain doesn't give up either, the thick drops slam against the roof of the car causing such a loud noise in return which fills the empty silence that lingers between the both of us.

"Will you please talk to me, I miss hearing your voice." His voice softens while the words barely escape his lips; leaving my heart to pound a little inside my freezing chest. I know he's done some horrible things today, but despite him saving my life and not driving away to leave me on the side of the road; I guess he deserves a few words to be said.

"You're an asshole, and I'm still not talking to you." My voice is laced with sarcasm I'm still quite pissed off, but none the less I know Chloe will make it out. I fold my arms up once again across my chest, still shivering like crazy against the wet clothes as the car eventually turns left, and hooks onto the turnoff point towards Post Falls with Mr. Jefferson smirking slyly from the corner of his mouth.


	6. A question from the past

It's been a day or so of just driving and occasionally stopping for gas to either siphon out of the abandoned cars, or siphoning from abandoned gas stations. Either way; it tastes like shit and if you don't spit it out quickly it'll linger in your mouth for the rest of the day. Yes, I found that out the hard way a couple hours back. We've managed to add a few more weapons to our little collection that's building up in the back seat; along with a few extra clothes for the both of us, and Chloe and the others if we ever run into them again. I'm still pissed that Mark just left them there, but I know Chloe; she's practically been preparing for this apocalypse to happen since day one.

So far the drive has been nothing but the occasional on again off again downpour, clearly this outbreak must be triggering the weather because I've never witnessed so much rain in my life. I'm not proud of searching through other people's cars while Mark finds enough gas to last us, but we need to survive now; and it's only going to get much worse from here on out. We also ran into a few cars along this road; mind you most of them tried to rob us so we didn't have a choice and we had to fight back. None of them resembled a rusted truck so I know we didn't accidentally pass by Chloe and the others as well, I'm starting to get a little nervous now. Not to mention I have living blood on my hands.

My eyes gaze towards the usual scenery; an endless tunnel of leafy trees and the occasional small ghost town with lingering residents rotting away outside of their homes. There are two things circulating through my mind at this point; the still mystery disappearance of Rachel Amber, and that creepy realm with Victoria.

Chloe and I still haven't had a chance to piece together the whole Rachel Amber thing at all, we've had a few theories and they do make sense to us in some way; one of them consisted of her also being able to time travel as well and she ended up getting stuck in the tendrils of time and space; causing the whole storm to hit us and this outbreak. It sounds a bit farfetched; but when you think about it, so is rewinding time at your own will, and the dead returning to life to feast on the living. But in the same breath, I remember a few students hinting that her and Mark might have had something else going on; considering she was aspirating to be a model, and of course; he's a photography teacher. It could have just been the simple fact of him trying to help her out; who knows. I mean, I never tried bringing it up with him, so maybe I should and see what he thinks. As for the whole Victoria thing; I must've just hit my head hard enough to stir up my over reactive imagination.

For once the sun lingers above the grey and dull clouds that hang in the air all around us, dampening the land with a gloomy atmosphere; well it was before the sun started to break though and give us some more light to work with here before the sunset diminishes and once again we're left in the dark. We've lost track of the time awhile ago, but the clock radio still flashes 7:15pm so we need to find a place to either camp or to pull an all nighter as usual.

Occasionally Mark makes the usual _'we should stop somewhere for a bit'_ remark, which I've got to admit; as much as I really want to stop somewhere for a bit for the real reason he's hinting at, but I also know it's just not the right time with everything that's been happening lately. I don't want someone or _something_to sneak up behind us and slaughter the both of us when I'm distracted.

The silent streak continues once again, leaving the both of us to the dark imaginations we're both harboring inside our minds. I know mine's filled with images of being torn apart by the corpses and finding Chloe, Warren, and Alyssa shredded to bits; or worse, one of _them_. I have no idea how Mark's mental stability is with all of these events but surely it can't be good if he can't sleep even for an hour or two.

"Were you taught how to drive?" This sudden question randomly pops out from Mr. Jefferson's mouth while his tired complexion gives away a slight hint as to why he's asking this question in the first place. After almost a couple hours of silence it almost startles me actually.

I was supposed to start my beginner's a week after the storm since the news channel forecasted it to be a brutal one; and boy where they ever right. And with the current events that are plastered right in front of us, I never really had a chance to practice let alone learn anything about the roads. I've learned some things from Chloe, but they weren't really street safe in my opinion.

"Well, not exactly." My arm slumps down towards the built in armrest on the door, you know; the lock control panel that people bored enough usually fall asleep against during a long car ride towards a happy fun time; or an unavoidable death filled with confusion and sadness. And at this rate, the odds look to be about 50/50 for either or.

I can just feel his annoyance rise a little, probably due to the lack of sleep since so far he's been the only one driving and we haven't run into anybody living besides the military; my bad, anyone _sane_ enough to acknowledge other human beings trying to survive as well in this fucked up place. I can tell he's itching to just fall asleep based on how many times we've swerved in and out of the empty lanes this past minute. I guess it wouldn't hurt to learn, since you know; at this rate the only way we have left to travel would be through a car.

"I'm going to pull over and I might as well teach you since you need to be able to in this day in age." He casually drifts over onto the side of the empty road and climbs out of the passenger seat; waiting for me to crawl over the cup holder section and into the driver's seat.

I sigh deeply, he does have a point; it would be a good idea to get this out of the way in case worst comes to worst, so with the being said I unbuckle my seat belt and casually slide myself over, planting myself firmly in the driver's seat while Mr. Jefferson opens the passenger side door and sits down where I was originally.

I place my hands on the wheel that's still a bit warm from his touch, the blinking lights on the dash board vaguely resembles some knowledge of what I'm doing, my eyes glance upwards towards Mr. Jefferson while he just smiles cautiously as well; shutting the door beside him and pulling his seat belt over his chest.

"It's fairly simple, the gas pedal is the right and the brake is the left. Honestly that's all you really need to worry about. Oh, and swerving; that's kind of important too." He flashes me a sarcastic smirk while he relaxes in the passenger seat for once, after several hours of nonstop driving I guess it can wear down on you individually.

The concept seems pretty straight forward, I'm glad this is an automatic; if it were a standard we'd all be dead by now. Chloe used to take me out around the junk yard and let me practice there in her truck; it's a standard so I guess you can _imagine_ the fun we had.

My fingers twitch a little on the steering wheel, knowing that nightfall will soon come; which means I'll be leaving the high beams on until further notice or we run into survivors that won't try to murder us for our supplies that we stockpiled up on.

Without second guessing anything I manage to hit the gas pedal with my foot, jolting the car forward briefly; and also stirring Mr. Jefferson wide awake for a few seconds. Eventually I manage to get the car under control, with a little bursts of speed here and there, and the occasional first time shakiness from trying to control a heaping pile of metal that can be dubbed as both a safe house and a casket.

The sky fades brilliantly into dusk, darkening the world and limiting my vision to the blinding beam of light that's in front of me for a good several feet. A wave of fear and panic sweeps over me, knowing that most accidents happen at night; and the countless stories my dad told me about hitting deer out around this time as well. I can tell it's getting a little bit foggy, considering the beams of light are filtering through something thick in the air; either that or it's smoke from nearby, which is strange because I don't see or smell anything that could resemble a fire anyways.

Once again the car is bounded by silence, and the struggle for Mark to fall asleep in a moving vehicle operated by a teenager who honestly has not the slightest idea of what to do if a bad situation pops out of nowhere. I don't blame him one bit; I wouldn't be able to sleep peacefully either under these circumstances.

He tosses and turns quite a bit in a matter of minutes, unable to get comfy at all. He opens his eyes and just gazes out the window like I have been doing for the past day and a half now. We have a map in the back seat and I honestly have no idea where the fuck we're headed; but I'm assuming it's just a matter of going up this highway until we hit a sign stating that we're near Idaho; or something like that at least.

My eyes quickly glance downwards towards the clock radio which now reads 9:17pm, I have so many questions lingering on my mind; especially after reliving the past events and how much evidence we've gathered throughout Blackwell alone. Ironically most of them revolve around Mr. Jefferson, I just wonder how he'd take it if I brought up some of them.

A battle of hesitation and curiosity takes place inside my wandering imagination, fighting off the _what ifs_with logic and reasoning, but none the less still leaving me even more curious than I was before. Now, I'm burdened with the ultimate task of either opening my mouth and stirring up trouble, or solving a few unanswered mysteries that are potentially harmless and pose no threat what so ever. Oh boy, the possibilities are endless.

"Um, Mark..." The panic now settles in, I know he heard the words because he's shifting himself upwards against the back of his seat and focusing on me completely with a confused expression plastered across his perfect face. There's no backing down now.

"Max?" He fights back my two word appearance with a one word response, eager to know what's on my mind as of now I assume; considering he's been trying to sleep for the past hour or so.

I clench the wheel tightly, slightly swerving out of place here and there but regaining control as I struggle to learn the basics of driving for long periods of time. Now that I have his attention, I don't know which question to address first; lovely.

"About Rachel, I've heard some things around Blackwell, and, since she was Chloe's friend I was just wondering if you knew anything else..." A timid response as usual, coming from me that is.

I can't tell the expression he's making due to the fear of losing control of the metal behemoth, but something tells me he seems a bit shocked and slightly panicky. A deep sigh escapes his lungs, while he fidgets around a bit in his seat. I can tell from the corner of my eye that I clearly triggered something in that head of his to make him behave this way.

"Why does she matter right now all of a sudden?" His tone hardens completely against the idea of even mentioning her. A small flashback pierces my mind of when I brought up Rachel and compared her and Kate to him before Kate did what she did later on; and remembering quite clearly, he got defensive over her being mentioned as well.

Silent, and a bit taken back, I shut my mouth before any further questions escape my lips. Based on how he's acting about this right now I just know something's up and he doesn't want to talk about it at all, not to mention he's gotten all pissy in a matter of seconds.

The outside world is not only a scary place, but it's also dark. So far I see no possible places of stopping anywhere to rest, let alone any sign of this so called safe spot the guy was telling us about. I can vaguely make out tiny glowing dots floating around, just like the fireflies we have at night around Blackwell.

After a few minutes of silence pass by, Mr. Jefferson eventually mumbles something quietly under his breath; raising his contact to mine while my eyes stay glued to the road that's in front of me so we don't die like we almost did before.

"I'd rather not bring her up. The way how I see it is that it was in the past, and now we have to deal with what's ahead of us; zombies. Besides, people change constantly and surely this apocalypse happened for a reason." His tone sounds a bit softer this time, but I still can't shake this uneasy feeling he's making me get right now.

"O-okay, I'm sorry for bringing her up." I apologize quickly before any other _'fights'_ happen between us. I think I'll save the other questions for later at this rate; I don't want to piss him off and then have him be the one walking on the side of the road and me driving slowly behind him, begging for him to come back inside where it's safe.

His eyes just gaze outside of his window, without speaking another word to me and lost inside of his own thoughts. Clearly she meant a lot to him either way, whether it was a romantic interest, or just a family-like manner; it's not really any of my business if he doesn't want to bring it up. But the other questions _do_ linger around my brain; such as if he knows more than what he's showing on Rachel's disappearance.

After the few hours of no rain and a blissful sunset, the rain begins to mist around the windshield; creating a nice, depressive mood for the both of us inside the car. The scent of rotting flesh decaying finally starts to hit us, probably from the entrails that were plastered over the hood of the car from earlier on.

"It's getting late." After the awkward conversation we just had, Mark opens his mouth briefly to state the obvious, it's nearly pitch black outside and there's barely any places to stop along this twisty, broken road.

At first I don't even speak to him, in fear of my questions being blurted out once again. I've had a lot of time to think about everything we've uncovered so far before the storm hit, and I'm not really patient when it comes to piecing information together. Not to mention Chloe knows a lot more about Rachel, and maybe there was evidence she didn't tell me yet either.

The mist then begins to turn into rain droplets that bounce off the top of the car's metal roof, along with the road that's illuminated in front of us by the front lights. Mr. Jefferson casually leans over towards the side of the steering wheel where the levers are that I have no clue what they even do, and flicks one of them up; triggering the wiper blades to begin the usual routine that it's been doing for almost two days now, and making me feel stupid.

"So now what?" My voice comes out a bit dark and scratchy. I can tell the neither one of us want to speak about anything, it could just be since we're so used to each other's presence that it's like the roommate effect; you live together in silence for nearly a couple days apart until it either returns to normal, or ends up vanishing all together.

His eyes are plastered along the road signs that hint at a nearby gas station where we could either find some more food, or refill the jugs of gasoline that we have in the trunk. Eventually I take the hint and steer the car towards the ramp that leads into a small area of houses and a couple convenience stores.

The scenery looks almost peaceful, the few houses surrounding this highway detour are completely boarded up with no hope of breaking in to check for supplies, the two stores however, one's a gas station that's completely empty; and looks like it might've been on fire a few days prior to, judging by the charred remains of the gas pumps and the fact that half of the building is destroyed; I think I'll just pull into the other one that's still standing over here instead...

"I have a couple flash lights in the back seat somewhere, we're going to need weapons incase push comes to shove." He explains solemnly, waiting for the car to fully come to a stop inside of the abandoned, drenched parking lot right next to the other store that's still intact.

The place doesn't look decrepit like most movies and TV shows describe them as, but judging from the empty shelves in the window I'm assuming there's barely anything left. The normal sized building has red lines going around the roof, and the usual posters they post claiming about their _'awesome deals'_ have been slightly torn and have writing scribbled all over them with spray paint. Some of it is just nonsense graffiti, but others have a few phrases like _'Abandon all hope'_ and _'Nobody will save you.'_Heartwarming isn't it?

Mr. Jefferson hops out of the passenger side door and opens the back door, grabbing a couple hunting knives and the Shrike; leaving the assault stand behind in the back seat. He closes both of the doors and walks around towards the driver's side where I am, my heart pounds profusely inside of my chest with the fear and excitement of what's waiting for us inside those doors.

Carefully I open my door as well, he hands me one of the smaller blades and helps me out of the seat, I kick the door shut behind me while he cringes a little and the foot mark I left on his shitty silver paint job.

"Just because it's an apocalypse doesn't mean you can beat up my car." He comments with his usual attitude, smirking slyly at me while I roll my eyes in a boring manner.

"Yeah, okay. I'll let the road kill damage your car then." I joke, hinting at the onslaught we ran through escaping his house a couple days ago.

I play with the knife a little bit between my fingers while we slowly approach the convenience store. The rain hasn't soaked us completely like it was doing to us earlier today, but it's enough to make me regret not packing my jacket that I left upstairs in his house. Mr. Jefferson has the Shrike leaning across his shoulders with one hand on the back end of the massive gun, and his carbon hunting knife and a small flash light in the other hand. I don't question why he didn't bring the pistols along with us instead since that thing's so big and heavy; it's clear to me that he wants to play with his new toy that he supposedly _'found.'_

"There should be a few supplies left; grab whatever you can and take one of those baskets with you once we get inside. I'll cover you if anything's still alive in there and if one gets too close; just stab it. Don't just stab it anywhere; jab the blade directly into the eyes and until they stop squirming." His smile at the end of that sentence almost terrifies me greatly.

"You act like I've never watched a horror flick before, never mind the countless hours I've poured into my zombie shooting games too." I use sarcasm to cover up the uneasy feeling I'm now starting to get from him. He doesn't really say anything back in response.

My heart's now thumping so loud I can feel it against my wet shirt, pulsating with adrenaline about whatever's lurking behind the shelves inside. I flick on my flash light and open the heavy door, surprisingly it's not locked and we're immediately plunged into darkness except for the little patches of light where our flash lights flutter about, catching dust particles along the way in the beams.

I'm usually not a one to get scared; after all, being exposed to all of this kind of made me immune to the usual _fear of the dark_ scenarios. I'm well aware that anything can be lurking around, and that something can easily snatch one of us and munch down for a tasty snack.

The silence is almost just as bad as it was in the car, but of course its necessary; incase we can hear the staggered breathing and snarls of the corpses lingering around. Almost in the dead silence, a gurgling sound can be made towards the far back of the store, along with a scratching at one of the back doors. Mark motions me towards the baskets to start grabbing supplies; leaving me with the intention of checking out whatever's back there that's struggling to make that noise.

Everything inside of me is screaming to just get out and run back to the car, _everything_. But instead of pussying out, I approach the shopping basket rack and take one. Letting my flash light loom over the empty shelves, and broken bags of moldy bread, I manage to find some cans of soup that were left untouched. Of course it's just tomato soup; no wonder it's still here. Nevertheless, I throw them inside of the cart while keeping my knife on standby.

The scent of rotting dairy products completely repulse me away from the drinks section. Gazing down at the ground I notice a trail of cookies and opened bags of chips all over the floor, and surprisingly an untouched package of chocolate chip cookies still sitting on one of the shelves. Of course I'm throwing those into the basket.

The next section there seems to be packaged bottled water lying about, there's only two left so I settle for taking only one that has about a dozen water bottles inside.

Eventually I make it to the section where the refrigerated goods are, it smells like absolute shit over here. I can't describe anything so foul; it's like having 40 cartons of milk laying around on the hottest summer day. Just the thought of it makes me want to vomit all over the sliding refrigerator doors.

After a minute of total silence, the sound of blood splattering against a wall from the opposite side of the store where I'm at grabs my attention. The metallic scent fills the air and instantly I feel the fear rising up inside of me.

"Mark?" I break the whole _'silence is golden'_ rule in a zombie apocalypse, praying for a response back and soon. We both mutually agreed awhile back that once we start exploring for supplies that we shouldn't holler across any abandoned buildings, in case we attract the corpses lingering inside. But of course after screaming his name almost at the top of my lungs all I hear back is nothing.

I glance down towards the basket that I have, I've managed to find some cans of soup, and a batch of untouched chocolate chip cookies, and a huge package of bottled water. Debating on whether or not I should leave it behind and find Mark, or just run out of the store all together and wait in the car.

A chill in the air sends shivers down my spine, along with the sound of something dragging across the ground behind me. Instantly I whip around and spot a half mangled corpse clawing its way towards me on the floor with its jaw completely broken off; leaving it completely silent. The torn skin and the smell of decomposition rises once again as the thing tries to scurry towards me, and without skipping a heartbeat I drop the basket, sliding the hunting knife out of its sheath and I stomp down on its broken spine so it can't move any closer.

The hesitation settles in greatly, I know I should kill it before it eats me; the other half of me is fascinated with one being so close and helpless. It must have been one of the first to turn way back when considering how rotted it looks, not to mention the basic biology class explaining how things decompose.

Its broken fingers are outstretched towards my other leg that's firmly on the ground in front of it. Desperately it tries to squirm towards the fresh meat. After admiring its hideous complexion, and deciding on if it was once a male or a female, I bend down and grab the back of its fleshy skull with my hand. I can instantly feel the skin begin to peel away and the movement of a few bugs that are crawling underneath its skin, repulsed by what I just did; I frantically stab the corpse in the eye, pushing the blade straight to the back of its head.

It falls down to the ground all limp and less dangerous. Bits of skin hang off of my fingers and instantly I wipe my hand against one of the shelves desperately trying to get this shit off. Once the disgusting skin is gone, my hand has a vague scent of death to it. Lovely.

The scratching is more frequent, while the sound of a single gunshot is fired off from the Shrike Mr. Jefferson has, and instantly the scratching stops.

A sigh of relief escapes my lungs as I head towards the basket of _'food'_ I dropped nearby, I aim the flash light beam towards where I heard the gunshot and I can make out Mr. Jefferson with some four legged figure beside him, with the sound of nails clacking happily away on the tiled floor of the store.

"Are you alright, I heard you scream." He stops in front of me while I feel a wet nose poke at my side, I gaze down and notice a fully grown husky with different colored eyes and a red collar, thumping its tail happily against my leg.

I haven't seen any living animal in ages, and the sight of the big guy nearly brings me down to tears of sheer happiness. I've always wanted a dog, but my parents weren't committed to owning any pets. I tried bringing a few strays home but we ended up giving them away and I was crushed as a kid; but look who's laughing now, mom and dad.

"Y-yeah, it was just a floor crawler... Was this the scratching?" I ask him, bending down and scratching the dog's head while it pants excitedly and tries to lick my fingers. The store seems strangely quiet, along with the weird omniscient feeling I have of something bad is going to happen soon.

Mark nods, gazing back towards the door where he found the dog. I follow his gaze and see a hefty amount of blood smeared along the walls leading towards the sign that says restrooms.

"Poor thing was trapped in the bathroom, with a few corpses trying to claw their way inside. I don't know how long he was there for but on my way over I noticed he's been living off of the food in here." He hints at all of the opened items that are littered around the floor of the store.

I feel around the husky's neck for the red collar that has a few tags on it, shining the light carefully towards the tags I spot a name; Felix.

"His name's Felix?" Once the question escapes my lips the dog thumps his tail against me even harder. His beautiful black and white coat gleams against the beams of light while Mr. Jefferson gazes outside towards the window where our car is still standing, untouched and ignoring my question.

Just as we're about to head back outside with the little supplies we have and the newest addition to our group; one of the most deafening sounds explode outside of the store; trembling the entire ground and rattling the windows and the shelves. Felix whimpers against the tremendous noise of something falling out of the sky while the windows eventually shatter everywhere and the sound of metal skidding across the dirt ends the sound shattering noise, followed by the sound of massive jets spinning out of control.

A fire erupts in the distance as well, illuminating the hunk of metal that fell out of the sky that's completely torn open from hitting the ground with such force and _'passengers'_ struggle with their seat belts to be let free. Some of the boarded up houses have been destroyed by the giant airliner that crashed to the ground, and immediately fresh corpses begin to stumble about. The fire spreads everywhere, not even the light rainfall is doing any damage to the massive flames. Bits and pieces of debris gently rain all around the wreck that just happened a few meters away from where we parked the car, and the store.

"This is _exactly_ what we need." Mr. Jefferson sighs deeply, glancing down towards Felix and I while Felix's tail hangs down low and the fur on his back stand up completely straight with his teeth showing. Mark swings the Shrike down off of his shoulders and loads a couple more bullets into the chamber, his eyes meet mine as I see a slow smirk spread across his face.


	7. The secret's revealed partially

The cool air hits my face with such force as my feet pound away on the pavement towards the silver car, all while dodging the corpses as they lunge at us with full force. The metal stripped away around the massive airliner reveals a sea of ripped luggage that could also be useful in our chances for survival. Not to mention they're giving me an insane idea that could result in one of us being eaten alive.

Felix growls menacingly at the oncoming fresh corpses that drip of gooey blood and smell like death itself. Since these ones are fresh they're sure as Hell not slow at all. Mr. Jefferson aims the Shrike at a few oncoming corpses; lining up the sight with their heads as they stagger around on broken ankles and fire touched grass towards the both of us.

It's quite a sight to see after being isolated from the disaster that sprung to life over the course of a month or so ago. Normally during an airplane crash; nobody would ever think to scrounge up the remaining intact pieces to survive an apocalypse of monsters wearing loved one's skin and tearing into the life of the living.

"Max get to the car, turn it on and drive!" He hollers over the vicious snarling of the dozens of corpses that surround us and the car. Bits of debris are still smoldering from the embers of the flames that destroyed the massive airliner, the light rainfall hasn't made any changes to the flames whatsoever as they crackle against the rain drops.

The thought of abandoning him right on the spot sickens me to my stomach. There's no way I could live with that, especially after abandoning Chloe and the others. Even just mentioning them alone sends an awful feeling surging underneath my skin towards my heart in a cluster of emotions raging from guilt, to anger out of what Mark had done to those unfortunate souls.

My eyes take a quick glance towards a few luggage bags nearby that are ripped open from the force of slamming into the ground, there's bits of embers nearby that are being subdued from the misty rain; but other than that there's no real threat lingering around in plain sight.

Deafening shots are fired from the Shrike, a loud, explosive echo followed by the sickening sound of blood splattering against the ground, and the stomach churning metallic scent that shortly lingers in the dead air. Mr. Jefferson keeps up the shots while reloading the chamber every chance he gets, Felix stands by his side with the fur still sticking up along his back; growling and bearing teeth at the oncoming sea of corpses yet terrified to get close enough to them.

Within a split second I head towards the bag in a frantic manner, kneeling down against the damp grass and tossing out all of the useless shit like oversized clothes, and useless souvenirs that people buy and probably will never look at again.

"What are you doing!?" Mr. Jefferson's voice is genuinely terrified and concerned for my well being. Not to mention the empty clicking noise that the Shrike's emitting makes me suddenly realize that we're screwed if a miracle doesn't happen right about now.

Unintentionally I ignore him over the hungering snarls of the undead; any chance we can get to find supplies needs to be taken seriously right now. My hands continue to dig through useless items, stumbling across a few chocolate bars here and there along with water containers and a blanket.

I can feel the tension in the air between everything that's happening right now, the black smoke emitting from the fire begins to burn my lungs, and Mark's effortless attempts to get my attention slowly diminish when he realizes that he's not grabbing my attention; not to mention my heartbeat is rapidly pounding against my ribs right now. Mr. Jefferson's resorted to stabbing the bastards in the face in order to reach the car that's several feet away from me, cautiously gazing back at me with worried expressions, and Felix is carefully following along behind him; growling at anything that tries to sneak up on him.

Right about now the unsettling feeling finally settles in, the danger of being separated by not only from the car, but Mark and Felix as well illuminates the potential aspects that could happen if I don't do something about this situation.

It's almost like time itself has slowed down and almost instantly all of the corpses start staggering towards me after giving up on Mr. Jefferson and Felix. The light from the nearby flames reveal their hideous complexions, and fresh blood smeared all over the fronts of their shirts when the excessive coughing hits before becoming reanimated.

Seeing the blood on the front of their shirts cause some flashbacks from the past to hit me with an emotional blow. From when my father was excessively sick before this all started. It got to the point where he started coughing up gallons of blood almost, and eventually when my mother went to help wash it off; he sunk his teeth into her neck, and ripped out her jugular right in front of me.

Mr. Jefferson manages to reach his car safely after an endless onslaught of bloodshed that took part a few minutes ago. The front of his white shirt is completely covered with blood splatters from his victims, and the sweat seems to be streaming down his face endlessly. He opens the back door for Felix to hop in and once he's in he slams the door shut, staring directly at me. His dark eyes gaze deeply into mine while the oncoming herd begins to almost surround me in a frenzy for my flesh.

Tiny sparks of blue electricity begin to circle around me just like in the 'dream' I supposedly had. The dark sky makes the beautiful strands stick out more to the naked eye. Eventually the sparks grow larger and more noticeable while Mark's eyes widen in pure shock, and Felix's growling falls silent.

Gazing down towards my hands, I notice the sparks gravitate towards my palms with such an overwhelming amount of force. Without even thinking, a foggy image of a vaguely faded doe appears before my very eyes.

Everything feels so surreal at this point, the apocalypse, this scenario, and especially the electricity tingling around my finger tips. The surging scourge generates an overwhelming amount of safety as well.

The doe prances between each of the corpses while leaving a small trail of a white wispy overlap; continuously gazing back towards me to see if I'm still there. Mr. Jefferson shows no signs of witnessing this magnificent sight whereas Felix shuts right up instantly, and softly whimpers a tiny bit at the strange deer from the safety of the back seat.

Confused and slightly curious, my eyes wander towards the doe that eventually stops weaving in and out of the herd and stares directly into my eyes with its dead dark blue ones. Within a second, the doe vanishes and both of my hands automatically reach out in front of me towards the hungry corpses who are literally inches away from a tasty treat.

Everything feels numb, my heart races against my chest, I can feel drops of sweat trickling down my forehead and not to mention a few tears drip down my cheeks. The snarling and desperate broken fingers trying to grab at me will never leave my mind; the scent of rotting flesh and blood mixed with dirt is enough to make me vomit everywhere. The sparks from a large ball of the blue-ish energy, and instantly shoot out from the tips of my fingers and spreads out evenly within a great amount of distance against the night sky.

Each strand reminds me of an epic lightning storm, you know the ones where there are at least several different streaks in the sky with detailed lines everywhere, and you can taste the electricity in the air. Yeah, that's how wicked this is.

The lightning burns all of the corpses that surround a mile radius almost instantly. Their charred bodies are reduced to a small, smoldering pile of ashes. Not to mention a few wicked lightning burns marks linger on the grass; showing the trail where they struck each corpse. Mr. Jefferson just stands there star struck at what he had just witnessed; I guess the cat's out if the bag now, huh?

"That was- how did you- _what_?" The words he forms are just a bunch of confusing nonsense that expresses greatly how his brain must feel right about now. The dead silence is still a bit eerie, the crackling flames begin to sizzle down due to the slightly heavier rainfall that's just begun and the night returns completely to a nice, calming sensation of peace after moments of terror.

Carefully I pick up the supplies I've found and walk my way towards his car as if nothing ever happened. Felix's tail wags excitedly against the car seat when he sees me approaching his side of the car so I can put what I found inside.

"Max, you can't just not tell me about what the Hell just happened." His words sound confused yet a bit excited about what he just witnessed as I place the blanket with supplies down, using the blanket to cover up the guns and weapons in case Felix hurts himself in the near future.

He does have a point; this entire time I haven't had the courage to tell him about how I can manipulate time and apparently electricity as well. Trust me, I was just as _shocked_as he was when I first found out about both of them; and yes, pun intended.

"I'll explain in the car when we start driving, it's kind of a long story." I slam the back door shut and climb inside the passenger side while Mr. Jefferson sighs deeply, giving in and opening the driver's side to start up the engine.

The drive away from the wreckage seems to haunt the three of us, the light from the flames that are quite a distance behind; still seem to follow us through the now heavy rainfall that blankets the road with a sheet of water, and leaving a cold chill in the air. I've noticed the weather patterns are a bit off lately, we haven't had this much rain in awhile; especially so much of it too.

The drive away is silent with nothing but the raindrops slamming against the roof of the car, and the steady rhythmic noise of the windshield wipers periodically going off every few seconds. Mr. Jefferson's eyes constantly shift towards my direction every few minutes ever since we've hit the highway towards Post Falls.

My eyes gaze down at my hands that are resting on my lap, a million questions run through my mind as well as my brain replaying that event that completely saved my life. The smell of electricity still lingers in the air, as well as the memories of charring over a dozen corpses at once in one swift motion into hot ashes.

Felix lies down on the back seat with his head resting against the side of the door; his foot gently kicks the blanket that we have covering up the weapons, as he whines a little at the rain covered window, indicating that he probably has to use the bathroom.

"I'll pull over soon, sound fair?" Mark's reassuring voice causes Felix to bark happily and wag his tail a little bit. It's crowded back there considering Felix shifts around every few minutes and barely lies down.

The only lights on the road are from the car's headlights and the moonlight that reflects off the marshland alongside the road we're on. There are a few abandoned houses along the long stretch; most of them are boarded up whereas the rest have half the structure still standing from whatever happened along here. It could have been from anything; a fire breaking out long ago, or renovations from before the incident. It's kind of fun guessing what happened when we drive by some of the places, it passes the time and keeps me awake. Not to mention I just love to think about the endless possibilities now that I can change them at will.

"So, about what happened back there?" Mark slowly eases the conversation into how I obliterated dozens of corpses with just the snap of my fingers. The rain dies down enough to slow down the wiper blades whereas Felix begins to whine again after the few minutes of Mark's broken promise to him.

I lift my eyes from my hands and stare at him while he focuses on the wet road ahead of us. His glasses have a little bit of blood on them while his shirt reeks of that metallic scent. His face isn't really clean either, there's dirt smeared all over his cheeks and along his neck as well. I probably don't look too good myself either.

"I honestly don't know... I mean, when I was knocked out I had a dream relating to the electricity; I didn't think it was possible." I admit half the truth, after witnessing that event I think he should wait a little longer for the time rewinding one to settle in.

Felix lets out a loud, betrayed howl as Mr. Jefferson slowly forms a smile across his lips, realizing how smart he really is and loyal to newcomers.

"So you just _magically_ shot out lightning from your hand?" The doubt in his voice is still there, but he knows it's true because he witnessed it for himself back there.

"Basically." I mumble under my breath, it doesn't really make any sense to me either; I get the whole time travelling ordeal but electricity powers? That's new. He deeply sighs, clearly hearing the word I mumbled to myself. He doesn't seem to be agitated at all; just confused none the less.

After several minutes and without any warning, he begins to slow down the car and a shadowy figure of some sort of animal appears to be standing in the middle of the drenched road. It seems almost lifeless, just standing there and gazing at the car's headlights for a long time.

Felix goes crazy in the back seat, his fur bristles up against his back and he begins to snarl intensely at the creature ahead of us. Mr. Jefferson's eyes quickly shift from the road to me with a bit of concern, whereas Felix begins to bark and snap wildly in the back seat. His hand slips under the steering wheel as he flicks on the high beams in front of the car so we can get a better look at the creature.

As the light touches the creature from the high beams, instantly we're greeted with rotting flesh chunks that are missing from its side. One of its antlers appears to be torn off completely along with some skin and flesh revealing bits of the brain exposed to the flies that circle the poor deer. One of its hooves is torn off along with an empty eye socket and entrails dangling from its rib cage towards the ground.

Instantly I can feel the tears leaking from the corner of my eyes at the sight. I thought only humans could get the disease but I guess I thought wrong. Mark sits idle at the wheel with the car running, clearly not knowing what to do since the damn thing's in the middle of the road and won't move. Felix shuts up automatically, locking eyes with the abomination that's outside of our car and blocking our path to safety. He quietly whimpers and slumps down in the back seat with his tail between his legs.

"Fuck I didn't think _that_was possible." Mark mutters bitterly, still star struck on the slightly moving reanimated deer corpse that struggles to move out of the way.

I can't help but feel sorry for the creature, usually what I know about apocalypses are usually from movies or TV shows, and most of the time the animals are unaffected. My hands automatically fling towards the dash board's compartment, opening it to reveal a small hand held gun with a clip attached to it that seems to be full of bullets.

"Max,-" Mr. Jefferson began, with his hand hovering over my shoulder while I roll down the passenger's side window with my eyes locked onto the deer. Mark just watches quietly, probably wondering what's gotten into me to take pity on this poor creature; the deer is my spirit animal, why else would a doe appear right before the whole lightning show I created?

Without even acknowledging my presence, the deer begins to slowly shift its way towards my side of the car. It's heavy breathing and raspy lungs are drawing closer and closer by the second as it hovers beside the car's open window; emitting a stench so vile it feels like I'm about to vomit.

Mr. Jefferson stays silent as a mouse, his knuckles are completely white from gripping the steering wheel and he appears to be holding his breath from the marvelous yet disgusting sight that's lingering outside of his car, and inches away from my flesh.

The deer doesn't even lunge for me at all, being a herbivore and all I don't think it has the instinct to tear into my arm which is amazing considering the circumstances it's under right now. Even though the creature's dead, I still feel some sort of connection towards it. Instead of raising the hand with the gun in it; I raise my other one and stick it outside of the window.

"What the _Hell_ are you doing Max!?" His voice is rushed and deeply concerned while the deer approaches my hand and gently rubs its disgusting forehead against my palm.

The second its head touches my hand, my face instantly twitches into a disgusted expression on how weird it feels, other than that it fills me up with a calm sensation and a sudden knowledge of awareness now. Even though this deer's far from being alive; I'm still connected to it spiritually.

The poor thing quivers and shakes clearly having a hard time standing up on three hooves, its breathing is irrationally out of control and I can feel this animal's pain as if it were my own.

Felix sits up quietly, setting his nose against my seat and the open window towards the undead creature whereas Mr. Jefferson looks like he's about to pass out for the amount of worrying he's doing.

"Shoot it, put it out of its misery quickly so we can leave." Impatiently his voice comes out, I know he doesn't mean harm; he hates seeing things suffer tremendously. Plus, we are kind of out in the open here.

I know he's right, I have to launch a bullet right threw its skull so that way it can be released of its pain. I just find it fascinating that it's acting as if it's still alive and not zombified. Without wasting another second, I point the barrel of the gun towards the deer's head; pulling the trigger and watching the remains of the deer's face explode into a million pieces and topple over on the side of the road towards the ditch in a bloody mess.

Mr. Jefferson's eyes linger over me for a little bit, before hitting the gas pedal and we continue down the rest of the dark, rainy road in silence. I didn't think animals could be affected from this disease; we'll have to be careful with Felix if that's the case. A few minutes of silence is easily disrupted by Mark's voice, sounding timid as ever.

"I've been thinking, maybe we should pull over for the rest of the night." Mark throws this idea at me almost instantly after turning around the corner and coming towards a few old Victorian style houses along the road.

I know what he's really getting at, considering the first time we were rudely interrupted by Chloe which I would give anything to have her back again. But after him abandoning them I've noticed that I started to slowly stop seeing what I used to see inside of him before. I know he was thinking of my safety; but he wasn't thinking of theirs either.

He doesn't even give me any say; instead he just pulls up randomly to an old house that has a huge flower garden with several bushes surrounding the place in the middle of the forest. The car gently rolls to a stop once we've reached the top of the driveway and the rain patters against the metal roof lightly.

"I guess we are." I roll my eyes at him, I open the door and hop out, slamming it tightly while opening up Felix's side, letting him hop out as he pants excitedly and takes a drink from one of the nearby puddles in the gravel. Mark pulls off the two blankets and grabs the Shrike and a couple knives, motioning to me to get the rest of the supplies while he approaches the front door that's completely boarded up.

My heart still can't help itself whenever I'm around him, especially whenever he looks at me with that concerning stare which is whenever I'm alone in a situation like the airliner one, Maybe someday I'll find it in my heart to forgive him for what he did back at the barn, and for all we know they made it out alive and well.

I reach into the back of the car to pull out the other small guns, pocketing about two of them while grabbing a few boxes of ammo. Felix stays by my side and doesn't make a noise, keeping his eyes plastered on the door that Mark's trying to break into.

I slam the door with my hip and turn around, gazing around the wet scenery with a suspicious stare. The last thing I want is for one of us to get bitten and I can't rewind fast enough to stop it. The sound of splintering wood grabs my attention when Mark looks up at me and smiles through his rain speckled glasses as he opens the front door revealing a dark entrance inside. Felix breaks away from my side, happily joining Mark as he turns on his flashlight and begins to search the place for any unwanted visitors.

The wooden steps are fairly old, and the railing is completely splintered apart as if there was a fight or something on the steps. The grass around the house is at least a few feet tall considering nobody's been mowing it and keeping it maintained so it wouldn't surprise me if there's anything lurking in there.

Once I'm inside, I shut the door behind me to the massive place. I notice a candle lit on one of the coffee tables in the living room that has old fashioned furniture and a plasma screen TV. The sound of Felix's claws clacking away on the tiles lets me know that they're in the kitchen and heading towards the staircase to go check upstairs.

"Down here is fine, the basement is boarded up and I think it's for the best if it stays that way." Mark assures me with a smile as usual, I just nod my head silently and place the remaining supplies down on one of the red couches, and I begin letting my eyes wander around the place.

On one of the old antique dressers there seems to be several pictures of a family get together, and along the wall there's a few photos of smaller children which I'm assuming are grandchildren. I haven't found any singular photos of the owners but I'm assuming they were ancient and probably long gone.

I hate thinking like that, especially during this time where if you find survivors you should be working together; not against each other. Every chance I get I'll definitely take a look around any places we stop by for safety because I like to know a little about the previous owners, who they are and what they like. I guess I was always a people person; it helps pass the time and definitely keeps my hopes up during times like this.

I dust off one of the old lamps in the dining room, pulling the cord and hoping that some sort of power will flicker on so we don't drain our flash lights. But to my demise, nothing flickers to life. I make my way into the kitchen where Mark and Felix were, I notice all of the cupboards are wide open and there's nothing but spider webs and few pieces of moldy sweets on the top shelf. Whoever was here must have packed up and left a long time ago.

I don't dare try to open the fridge, I can't imagine the stench that'll emit from that thing if I open it. Old, rotting food, and curdled milk just like that grocery store we were in earlier today is all I can think of; and that scent alone was enough to make me vomit.

Footsteps can be heard coming down the stairs, along the playful panting of Felix as the two emerge in the kitchen's doorway. Mr. Jefferson just gazes at me from afar while Felix walks right up to me and shoes his face into my hand.

"I know you're still mad at me, I'm really sorry Max for what I did." His soothing voice rings through the air while I stop petting Felix's head and glance upwards at the man leaning against the door frame. His glasses glisten against the candle light while everything else about him is completely dirty, the scruff on his face is becoming a lot longer, and the bags under his eyes look like they're bruised from being forced open for about a couple days straight. He looks like he was hit by a truck several times, _and that's putting it nicely_.

"Yeah, I am. How could _you_?" My voice quivers a little at the end of my sentence, Mr. Jefferson's eyes soften as he walks towards me a little, standing directly in front of me. His musky scent lingers off of his dirty clothes, mixed in with blood, dirt, and god knows what else.

"They were coming; I wanted to wait for them. I really did. I know they made it out alive, I have that feeling you know, that's one thing I'm good for; knowing if people are still alive or not. Just like how you can shoot lightning from your hands; I can see the dead. And I haven't seen any of them, and that's how I know they're alive and looking for us." He ends his speech by wrapping his arms around me and holding me close to him, kissing the top of my messy hair and closing his eyes; smiling.

My heart breaks instantly, he's finally being honest with me and opening up a little, eventually I'll have to tell him about the time reversing ability I also have, but I also don't want to ruin this wonderful moment. Felix rubs up against the both of us, causing him to break away from me and to rub his back while his tail wags in all directions.

"Now, can _we_go to bed?" His voice sounds heavy and aroused a little, as he drops his hands from petting Felix and grabs my wrist gently; leading me towards the staircase with a playful intention lingering inside of his mind.

I've always wanted him, ever since the first day I walked through those doors and met him. The fact that he praised me more than Victoria set me on a high to the point where I'd just dream about him and I constantly getting along, or taking a midnight swim in the school's pool. I've always wanted to get to know him better but Victoria kept shoving me aside and never left his presence for even a second.

Before I know it, we're upstairs in one of the old master bedrooms, the room is heavily decorated in dark red, with a massive bed that hasn't been touched in who knows how long. Mark's white shirt is already off and lying in a pile on the floor, he doesn't have much muscle; he's just an average build while he lies down on his back, and pulls me down on the bed on top of him, grinning from ear to ear.

"You know, ever since I laid my eyes on you when I met you for the first time I've always wanted you. Victoria would never leave me alone so I couldn't get you alone; but now..." I shut him up by pressing my lips against his; pushing my body deeply into his while I have him pinned down on the bed.

"You talk too much, _shush_." I playfully whisper, biting his bottom lip while he breathes heavily against my body. His lips touch mine over and over again, getting rougher and rougher each time he touches them. Eventually he rolls me over and has me pinned beneath his legs and the bed, with a sly smirk spread across his face.

"This won't hurt, I promise." He slides his fingers around my thin pants and tugs them off swiftly, hooking his fingers against my underwear and pulling them off as well; tossing them over the side of the bed and on the floor. He then begins to fumble around with the zipper on his jeans, shoving me against the headboard gently and kissing down my neck.

The light rainfall is illuminated by the moonlight through the open window, the light crackle of thunder can be heard off in the distance as well as a brilliant streak of lightning that shortly follows after it. The old house creaks against the wind and everything seems to have finally fallen into place after a long, eventful couple days we can finally relax and just enjoy the small moments we have left; together.


End file.
